The firm was established in October 1896 when Charles Henry Tolhurst and William Ernest Druce commenced practice under the name of Tolhurst & Druce. William Druce practised for almost 50 years. The firm operated from the Melbourne Chambers building in Chancery Lane - now know as Little Collins Street - until 1938 when it was demolished.

In that year the firm of Tolhurst & Druce moved to premises in the Orient Building on Collins Street, which also housed the offices Keith McLaren Emmerson's law firm. Francis Thomas Druce (son of William Druce) had commenced Articles with Keith McLaren Emmerson in 1935. When in 1945 his father died, Francis Druce went into partnership with Keith Emmerson changing the name of the firm to Tolhurst Druce & Emmerson - which it remains to this day.

Francis Druce remained a partner with the firm until the early 1990s and his son Peter Francis Druce was a partner until he retired in 1998.

Peter Druce is remembered by the legal profession for the 'Druce Dots Map', a guide to the intricacies of local government requirements which was used by conveyancers for decades. He also served as a Melbourne City Councillor and had a high profile practice in town planning and property law.

During the rash of legal profession mergers and interstate amalgamations of the 1980s the firm resisted the path of growth for growth's sake. Instead it established a network of law firms in different States known as Law Network Australia. The network increases the pool of knowledge of each member firm and their capacity to practice in Federal matters whilst maintaining the individuality of each firm. Network Law Australia has representative firms throughout Australia.

In more recent times Tolhurst Druce & Emmerson has seized the opportunity to merge with two long established, smaller law firms whose practice areas complemented its own. The mergers with Gavan Duffy & King in 1998 and Doyle & Kerr in 2001 expanded the practice's capacity in the areas of wills, estates and related litigation, not for profit organisations, family law and commercial transactions.