Geoff Masel - Founding President

One of Australia's leading lawyers, Geoff Masel, who was in 1980 the founding President of the Victorian Branch of the Aviation Law Association of Australia (as it then was), died on 8th August 2004, aged 75. Although he was more widely known for his second to none expertise in other areas of the law, principally insurance, building and professional indemnity, he was a leading and experienced aviation law practitioner.

Geoffrey Robin Masel was born in Melbourne in September 1928. Since 1921, his father had been a partner of, and gave his name to, the Melbourne firm Phillips, Fox and Masel (as it then was). Geoff followed his father and his elder brother, Leigh, as senior partner of the firm, retiring as such, as he had intended for many years, at the age of 60. In 2002 he celebrated 50 years with the firm and in the profession.

Geoff attended Melbourne University from which he graduated in law in 1949 and in arts (majoring in economics) in 1955. He joined Phillips Fox and Masel in 1952 and became a partner in 1955, only intending to stay for a while until something more interesting came along. He was particularly keen on a career in which he could be of public service and at one stage coveted being an in house lawyer at Trans Australia Airlines (TAA). Luckily for the profession, he found something to interest him in the practise of law and stayed at it for the rest of his life, justifiably establishing a giant reputation not only for his undoubted knowledge of the law in all its facets but for his integrity and humanity.

Geoff was involved in many leading cases including litigation arising from the Westgate Bridge collapse and the Ash Wednesday bushfires, the latter taking him to the English courts. In an aviation context, he acted for TAA's insurers in the case arising from the collision at Sydney Airport in 1971 between a TAA Boeing 727 and Canadian Pacific DC8, the seminal common law case relating to the use of cockpit voice recorder information for other than air safety purposes. For over 30 years from its inception, he acted with distinction for the Australian Aviation Underwriting Pool Pty Ltd and enjoyed a close professional relationship with its head, the late Cedric Jones. He had many other longstanding clients but also always found time to act for deserving battlers.

After retiring as the senior partner of Phillips Fox (as it had become) in 1989, Geoff remained associated with the firm until his death, as a consultant, mentor and opinion writer as well as pursuing his long-time interests in legal education and writing. He became a sought after arbitrator and mediator (especially in insurance matters).

During his career, Geoff wrote 2 books and a myriad of learned legal papers. He was a must as a speaker at conferences of substance in his fields of expertise and addressed the Association's conferences on many occasions, the last being delivering the David Boughen Memorial Address at the conference held in Melbourne in 2002.