Clerk Walker commenced as a firm in 1877 when Claud Septimus Clerk entered into partnership with R J Lucas under the name of Lucas & Clerk. Cecil Walker joined the partnership in 1890 and the firm’s name changed to Lucas Clerk & Walker. Between 1898 and 1904, the firm traded as Clerk & Walker; and in 1904, after the admission to the partnership of Colonel L F S Hore, the firm’s name became Clerk Walker & Hore.

At this time, Herbert Nicholls and William Joshua Tilley Stops were practising a few doors down in Collins Street as Nicholls & Stops. The firm of Nicholls & Stops existed between 1891 and 1917. Herbert Nicholls (later Sir Herbert Nicholls) was a partner from 1891 until his appointment as a Judge of the Supreme Court in 1909. In 1914, he was appointed as Chief Justice and remained in that position until 1937 making him the second longest serving Chief Justice in the history of the Tasmanian Supreme Court.

In 1917, Clerk Walker & Hore merged with Nichols & Stops to become Clerk Walker & Stops.

The firm of Clerk Walker & Stops continued under that name until Ernest Crofton Stephens joined the partnership in 1921 and then traded as Clerk Walker Stops & Stephens until 1945. Mr Stephens retired from the partnership in that year and the firm resumed the name of Clerk Walker & Stops. For a short period, William Joshua Tilley Stops was a sole practitioner under that name until he was joined by his son Peter Hamilton Tilley Stops in 1946. In 1948, Mr Stops senior retired and Peter Benson Walker entered into partnership with Peter Stops. That partnership continued at 116 Collins Street until 1969 when James Robert Hurburgh joined the firm.

Jamie Hurburgh oversaw the incorporation into the practice of the firm of Baynton & Perkins (formerly Perkins & Dear). In 1977, the firm moved from its long term premises at 116 Collins Street to the, then new, Reserve Bank building at 111 Macquarie Street. In that same year, James Walker joined the partnership.

Amongst other changes, during the eighties, Peter Stops retired as a partner and Peter Walker died. The firm continued with Jamie Hurburgh and James Walker as partners until Neil Readett joined in July 1990. In 1991, the firm moved from the Reserve Bank to its current premises at 51 Davey Street.

In 2003, the firm changed its name to Clerk Walker and sadly lost Jamie Hurburgh after a long battle with illness. James Walker and Neil Readett were joined by Kate Bradshaw and Alison Wiss as partners in 2007.