Profile: Stuart Clark

Product Liability

Biography: Product Liability

Stuart Clark is the managing partner of the firm's litigation and dispute resolution practice group. Before this appointment, he headed the firm's product liability and mass tort litigation practice. Stuart led that group to its position as the Australian market leader, continually ranked as the leading Australian law firm in this area by premier directories.

Over the past decade, Stuart has been intimately involved in the development of Australia's product liability laws and the majority of the leading Australian cases in this area. He provides specialist advice in all facets of product liability and his expertise in the defence of class action and mass tort litigation, involving complex scientific and medical issues, is internationally recognised. Stuart and the Clayton Utz team have been instrumental in developing Australian class action jurisprudence since the introduction of class actions in 1992.

Stuart and his team have played a role in most of the significant product liability and class action cases in Australia over the past decade, including leading the defence in the Gravigard (Copper 7) litigation, the Fen-Phen litigation and the Sydney Water Royal Commission and subsequent personal injury class actions. More recently Stuart has been advising corporations and financial institutions in relation to regulatory investigations and inquiries, including a number instituted under the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Stuart also provides crisis management advice to a number of clients, both government and commercial.

Stuart is a member of the International Association of Defense Counsel (IADC) (board member 2002-2004), the Defense Research Institute (DRI), the Australian National Product Liability Association, the London Court of International Arbitration Asia-Pacific Council and the International Bar Association. He also currently serves as co-chair of the International Class Actions Committee for the American Bar Association.