Fortune favours the bold

Achieving justice for people has been the biggest reward for Annesley DeGaris throughout his law career, from protecting consumer rights to litigating environmental contamination in neighbourhoods.

Mr DeGaris says special interest groups in the United States – where he is from originally and where he works – continually attempt to control people’s access to justice and the legal system and there is not the large bureaucratic system to monitor unscrupulous or dangerous business practices there, as there is in other industrialised countries.

“We are much more reliant on private rights of action enforced through our legal system to protect individuals.  The type of law I practise is essentially the front line defence in protecting those who are most often unable to protect themselves,” Mr DeGaris says.

His passion for giving a voice to the voiceless has been honoured with this year’s Lawyer of the Year Award. 

“I think these awards are especially significant to me because it is a commentary on what your peers, which in this case would also sometimes include my adversaries, think of you as an attorney,” Mr DeGaris says.

Mr DeGaris was recognised in the categories of Mass Tort Litigation/Class Actions and Personal Injury Litigation (Plaintiffs). Winners were chosen based on peer-review assessments.

Even after receiving many accolades in the United States, Mr DeGaris still considers the Rotary Foundation Scholarship for International Understanding in the early 1990s to be one of his most significant awards.

The scholarship placed him overseas at Melbourne Law School where he focused on studying International Law.

“I chose Melbourne because the faculty at the law school impressed me, as did the curriculum.  The faculty members, including Malcolm Smith and others, were some of the most intriguing academics I have ever been fortunate enough to study under.”

Many of his best memories come from the people he met in the faculty as well as at Trinity College.

“Being a few years older than the average student, I was impressed with the number of well-rounded individuals I met there,” Mr DeGaris says.

Returning to the United States to reunite with family, his studies in Melbourne continued to play an important role in determining career goals.  He would eventually go on to be a founding partner in a Birmingham, Alabama firm dedicated to areas that include personal injury and environmental litigation.

Despite the distance, Australia continues to pop up in his law career. A product liability suit involving a defective drug recently brought him back to Melbourne and later to Adelaide to take testimonies from an expert in the field. 

Additionally, one of his recent guest speakers at Cumberland School of Law, where he is an adjunct professor, was a barrister from Melbourne.  Mr DeGaris met the barrister, Robert Heath, while he was at Trinity College and they have remained in contact.

Mr DeGaris is now teaching law, working on an article as well as a book project, not to mention a number of legal cases. Two of his recent cases involve recalled hip devices where he represents hundreds of individuals.

 “It’s a very compelling litigation as most of my clients suffered tremendously and underwent revision surgeries to remove the defective devices,” Mr DeGaris says.

With a schedule filled with cases, projects, and teaching, he continues to find ways to balance family life and also travel.

“At some point in the future it would be interesting to return to Australia for more than just a visit.  An academic position, such as a guest lecturer or visiting professor would be of interest,” he says. “I do have plans for an extended vacation with my family in 2014.  I want my family to experience Australia, especially Melbourne.” 

Mr DeGaris offers some insight for prospective and current law students. 

“Finding the right practice area is about being open to all areas of the law and investigating these areas through the law school’s curriculum.  If conflict is something you find particularly distasteful, then it’s probably not your calling to be a litigator. If you are intellectually curious then a position in academia is something to consider.”

If he could travel back in time, Mr DeGaris also has some advice for his younger self.

“I would tell him not be intimidated by change and take more risks. Fortune favours the bold.  I also would say ability without opportunity is wasted ability and opportunity without ability is wasted opportunity.  You must hone your abilities and constantly look for opportunities.”

www.law.unimelb.edu.au