Our Story

For over 40 years, our senior partners Gary Bugden OAM and Michael Allen have specialised in strata title law.

Gary and Michael started their legal careers together at a boutique law firm in Double Bay and then went on to become partners of Australia’s largest law firm at the time, Mallesons Stephens Jaques (now King & Wood Mallesons). Gary was managing partner of their Brisbane office and sat on the national board for 9 years while Michael was the national partner in charge of the property, construction and environment team for 5 years.

Gary and Michael have written books together, presented at hundreds of conferences around the world and consulted on numerous iconic real estate projects both in Australia and overseas. They have forged a reputation as international leaders in this area of law and helped shape Australia’s strata title industry.

Allen Partners and Bugden Legal was merged in July 2019 to create Bugden Allen Lawyers. We opened our Melbourne office in June 2021 when Tim Graham and his team joined the firm, the start of our national journey to create Australia’s most authoritative firm on property and strata law matters.

In October 2021, we merged with Sydney-based boutique strata firm, Le Page Lawyers. David Le Page and his team of 7 lawyers and support staff joined our NSW team bolstering our dispute resolution and levy recovery capabilities.

In November 2021 we began operations in WA and have now expanded to a team of two senior lawyers and one paralegal.

On 15 February 2023, we finalised a merger with the Sunshine Coast’s leading body corporate law firm, Stratum Legal. Michael Kleinschmidt and his team of 3 lawyers and 2 support staff joined BAGL, with Michael becoming a Partner in our Queensland office.

In September 2023, we merged with GDP Law in Sydney, a leading strata advisory firm run by Gerard Doyle. Gerard joined the NSW partnership, and now runs our dispute and litigation practice.

Our story will continue to evolve. We are now a national firm that employs over 50 people. We proudly service clients throughout Australia from our offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and the Sunshine Coast.