One of us: Maurice Blackburn law firm touts Mark Dreyfus to clients globally

Mark Dreyfus was being touted as part of the Maurice Blackburn team to prospective international clients, raising concerns about links between the legal firm and the ALP.

Mark Dreyfus enters the House of Representatives on Wednesday. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Maurice Blackburn touted Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus as one of its key team members to international clients, with the class-action law firm claiming it was doing so by accident in a bungle that has raised concerns within Coalition ranks.

According to the Maurice Blackburn website, Mr Dreyfus’s legal experience was being presented to potential global interests under the firm’s “Our People” section.

Following questions from The Australian on Wednesday, Maurice Blackburn removed an extensive biography of Mr Dreyfus which celebrated the Attorney-General as a “passionate defender of the rule of law” and a “strong advocate for social justice”.

Maurice Blackburn’s website had canvassed details of Mr Dreyfus’s CV including roles working as cabinet secretary and parliamentary secretary for climate change and energy efficiency. It also detailed Mr Dreyfus’ experience prior to becoming Australia’s first law officer, including time as a Melbourne barrister, serving as adviser to the Victorian attorney-general and planning minister from 1985 to 1987.

A spokesman for Maurice Blackburn said the company was “unaware” it was promoting Mr Dreyfus as a member of the company to international clients until it received inquiries from The Australian. The spokesman blamed it on an oversight and confirmed Mr ­Dreyfus’s biography had featured on its website since the Victorian Labor MP spoke at a public event in 2022.

“We were unaware his bio had incorrectly remained available on the international section of our website as a result of this event link, and this has now been removed,” the spokesman said.

Mr Dreyfus did not provide a comment to The Australian on Wednesday about his biography appearing on the Maurice Blackburn staff portal accessed by prospective overseas clients.

There are deep historic links between Labor and Maurice Blackburn. Mr Dreyfus in February appointed former Maurice Blackburn veteran Giri Sivaraman as the Australian Human Rights Commission Race Discrimination Commissioner after 22 years at the law firm.

In March last year, Employment Relations Minister Tony Burke appointed Maurice Blackburn principal Alexandra Grayson as deputy president of the Fair Work Commission.

A number of Labor frontbenchers and MPs have also worked for the legal firm including Anika Wells, Murray Watt and Nita Green. Maurice Blackburn also acted for Mr Dreyfus in his legal fight to access then attorney-general George Brandis’s ministerial diaries.

Opposition finance spokeswoman Jane Hume urged Mr Dreyfus, who in 2022 relaxed class action rules that industry figures claim supports overseas class action litigation, to “come clean”.

Part of a Maurice Blackburn internet page that promoted the Attorney-General as a team member.

“We all knew that Mr Dreyfus backed litigation class-action funders when he rolled back safeguards in 2022, despite reports of his own investments in such companies,” Senator Hume said.

“What we didn’t know was that he is apparently still on the books for the class action firms themselves. Mr Dreyfus and Maurice Blackburn should come clean on this, and explain why it appears you can hire the Attorney-General of Australia to take on your class action case.

“This is why it’s essential that those making the laws declare such conflicts of interest. No wonder the big overseas litigation funders are descending on Australia with dollar signs in their eyes, ready to wage lawfare and profiting off our unprepared courts.”

The criticism comes after the Coalition in 2022 accused Mr Dreyfus of a conflict of interest over his indirect ownership of shares in a firm that funded litigation and legal class actions.

Through his self-managed super fund, Mr Dreyfus indirectly owned shares in Australian equities fund Greencape Broadcap which invests in several companies listed on the Australian sharemarket.

Its parent company, Greencape Capital Pty Ltd, was the largest shareholder in Omni Bridgeway. Omni Bridgeway bills itself as the largest litigation funder in Australia and campaigned heavily against the former government’s proposed legal reform to crack down on litigation funders.

Mr Dreyfus was cleared of breaching the ministerial code by Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet secretary Glyn Davis.