Maurice Blackburn

Headquarters	Melbourne, Australia
No. of offices	30 [1]
No. of employees	1,000+
Key people	Steve Bracks (Chairman) [2] Jacob Varghese (CEO)
Revenue	AUD$254.1 million (2024) [3]
Date founded	1919
Founder	Maurice Blackburn
Company type	Limited liability partnership
Website	http://www.mauriceblackburn.com.au

Maurice Blackburn Lawyers, (formerly Maurice Blackburn & Co and Maurice Blackburn Cashman), was founded in 1919 by Maurice Blackburn. ^[1] The firm is an Australian plaintiff law firm, having represented clients in a number of high-profile cases since its establishment.

Contents

• Major cases
• Current notable staff
• Former notable staff
• References
• External links

Major cases

Since its establishment Maurice Blackburn Lawyers have acted in a number of cases, including:

• The 40-Hour Working Week Case – in conjunction with the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) Maurice Blackburn fought for shorter working hours;
• MUA Waterfront Dispute Case – represented maritime workers against the Commonwealth Government during the waterfront dispute in 1998;
• The GIO Class Action – the first shareholder class action win in Australian legal history;
• Centro Class Action – the biggest shareholder class action settlement in Australian legal history; ^[4]
• Black Saturday bushfires Class Actions – collectively the largest class action settlement in Australian history at $794 million ($494 million in the Kinglake class action and $300 million in the Marysville class action);
• Mohammed Haneef Case – defended Dr. Haneef against false charges of terrorism in 2010 and later acted on his behalf in a defamation matter; ^[5]
• The Gene Patent BRCA1 Case – a ruling that saw the High Court rule that a mutated gene that causes cancer cannot be subject to a patent under Australian law. ^[6]

Current notable staff

• Josh Bornstein

Former notable staff

• Maurice McRae Blackburn, founder, former Labor and Independent Labor MP
• James Burke, former Northern Territory politician
• Terri Butler, former federal Labor MP
• John Button, former Labor Senator for Victoria ^[7]
• John Cain, former Victorian Government Solicitor ^[8]
• Enver Erdogan, Victorian politician
• Nita Green, Senator for Queensland
• Justice Bernard Murphy, Justice of the Federal Court of Australia ^[9]
• Nicholas Reece, Lord Mayor of Melbourne
• Nicola Roxon, former Commonwealth Attorney-General and former federal Labor MP
• Bill Shorten, former federal Labor MP and Minister
• Bill Slater, politician and founder of the law firm Slater and Gordon Lawyers
• Murray Watt, Labor Senator and former Queensland Labor MP
• Anika Wells, federal Labor MP

References

External links

• Maurice Blackburn: Official website