Former high-profile Australian lawyer and politician Tom Hughes AO KC died two days after his 101st birthday.
His daughter Lucy Turnbull, wife of former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, shared a moving tribute to her father following his death around midday on Thursday.
‘Goodbye to a wonderful father. “What an incredibly long and good life,” he wrote online.
Hughes completed a law degree at the University of Sydney in 1941 after graduating from St Ignatius’ College.
But rather than jumping straight into practice, Hughes joined the Royal Australian Air Force and was awarded the French Legion of Honor for his service in World War II.
He was admitted to the bar in 1949 and appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1962.
Several high-profile defamation cases were spearheaded by the legal genius, including those of NRL legend Andrew Ettingshausen and the late stockbroker René Rivkin.
Hughes was also a respected leader in commercial and constitutional law.
Former high-profile lawyer and politician Tom Hughes AO KC (pictured) has died aged 101.
Tom Hughes’ daughter Lucy Turnbull, wife of former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, said goodbye to her father on Thursday. Lucy and Malcolm Turnbull are pictured with their family and Mr and Mrs Hughes outside Government House in 2015.
Hughes was elected to federal parliament in 1963 with his young daughter Lucy at his side.
He served as Member for Parkes and later for Berowra under the Liberal Party, and Attorney General in the Gorton Government.
A close friend and former Prime Minister, John Howard, worked as Hughes’ campaign manager for the seat of Parkes.
Howard described the election as a “very dramatic campaign…marked by the assassination of (American) President Kennedy,” and “we won an extraordinary victory,” he told the Sydney Morning Herald.
Hughes ended his political career in 1972 and “returned to the bar with a vengeance” and “built a massive practice.”
Tom Hughes died two days after his 101st birthday. He is pictured with his daughter Lucy Turnbull and son-in-law, then Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra in 2016.
New South Wales Chief Justice Andrew Bell described Hughes as “one of the greatest trial lawyers and advocates in our nation’s history” and, “quite simply, an icon of the Australian legal profession”.
Howard said of Hughes: “He retained a lively mind to the end.”
He retired from his legal practice in 2013, shortly before his 90th birthday, and proudly grabbed a cricket bat as he turned 100 and said “100 not out,” a wink as he waved a cricket bat at protesters. against recruitment outside. his home during the Vietnam War in 1970.
Hughes biographer Ian Hancock described the legal genius as “probably the last of his kind”.
‘He learned by himself by watching other lawyers. “He had four careers: he was a farmer, an aviator, a lawyer and a politician,” he said.
New South Wales Chief Justice Andrew Bell described Hughes (pictured with his portrait in 2004) as “one of the greatest trial lawyers and advocates in our nation’s history”.
Hughes was considered a leader of the New South Wales bar for about 30 years and “charged the highest fees”, according to Mr Hancock.
Howard praised Hughes for accomplishing “a lot” during his tenure as attorney general between November 1969 and March 1971, including his work on the Concrete Pipes case, which interpreted the power of corporations under the Constitution.
“That interpretation has allowed the Commonwealth to control and regulate most of the business and economic life and much of the social life of Australia,” former High Court judge Michael McHugh said in 2005.
Hughes is survived by his wife Christine, children Lucy, Tom and Michael, and their families.