Maurice Byers was the Commonwealth Solicitor-General from 1973 to 1983, in which capacity he played a role in the Gair Affair and the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis.
20 Facts About Maurice Byers
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Maurice Byers had an unmatched record of success in his appearances before the High Court of Australia, and he has been characterised as the finest lawyer never to have been appointed to the High Court.
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Maurice Byers studied law at the University of Sydney and was admitted to the Bar in 1944.
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Maurice Byers's practice was mainly in the fields of equity, taxation, company and constitutional law.
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Maurice Byers was President of the New South Wales Bar Association from 1965 to 1967.
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Maurice Byers was a Member of the Executive Council of the Law Council of Australia from 1966 to 1968.
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Maurice Byers had an unparalleled success rate when appearing before the High Court in that capacity.
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Maurice Byers was said to have had "mesmeric powers" over the High Court.
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Maurice Byers' name is first recorded in the Commonwealth Law Reports as junior to Spender KC in Horsey v Caldwell.
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Maurice Byers appeared regularly in the High Court, including as counsel in the following notable cases:.
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Maurice Byers played a role in the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis, which brought his former colleagues Gough Whitlam and John Kerr into conflict in the most dramatic way.
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Maurice Byers said parts of the Ellicott opinion were "clearly wrong" and said "the mere threat of, or indeed the actual rejection of, Supply neither calls for the ministry to resign nor compels the Crown's representative thereupon to intervene".
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Maurice Byers was Leader of the Australian Delegation to the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law in 1974, and then from 1976 to 1982.
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Maurice Byers served as a Member of the Australian National University Council from 1975 to 1978.
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Maurice Byers was the first chairman of the NSW Police Board from 1983, established by the NSW Labor government when corruption was exposed in the early 1980s.
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Maurice Byers was joined by Professor Enid Campbell; Professor of Law at Monash University; Professor Leslie Zines, former Professor of Law at the Australian National University; Sir Rupert Hamer, former Premier of Victoria; and Gough Whitlam.
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Maurice Byers was married to Patricia, and their children were Barbara, Mark and Peter.
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Sir Maurice Byers died on 17 January 1999, aged 81.
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Maurice Byers was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1978 Queen's Birthday Honours.
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Maurice Byers was knighted in the 1982 New Year's Honours.