High-profile defamation barrister Clive Evatt dies
Clive Evatt, one of the best-known defamation barristers in Sydney, has died aged 87.
Over a career spanning more than 60 years – interrupted by a 13-year period of exile – Evatt acted for a host of famous plaintiffs against media outlets, including underworld figure Abe Saffron, architect Harry Seidler and dancer Gypsy Fire, wrongly portrayed by newspaper Truth as Bob Dylan's sex slave.
In 2012, Evatt secured a $176,296 damages payout for former Guantanamo Bay detainee Mamdouh Habib over defamatory comments made by broadcasters John Laws, Steve Price and Ray Hadley on radio stations 2UE and 2GB.
He also acted for Rachelle Louise, the former girlfriend of convicted murderer Simon Gittany, in her District Court defamation case against The Daily Telegraph. The parties reached a settlement in 2015 when the newspaper admitted it was wrong to refer to her as a stripper. In his opening address, Evatt had referred to Louise as a modern-day Joan of Arc.
Evatt told the Herald in 2012 that Saffron's pursuit of the Gold Coast Bulletin over a crossword clue referring to a "Sydney underworld figure, nicknamed Mr Sin" was the first case of defamation by crossword.
"I never saw any evidence that he is a criminal," Evatt told journalist Michael Duffy. ''Mind you, I think he is on the fringe."
The son of the late barrister and NSW Labor minister Clive Raleigh Evatt, QC – who also acted for a range of famous plaintiffs in defamation proceedings, including Tom Uren, Shirley Bassey and Dawn Fraser – and nephew of High Court judge and federal Labor Attorney-General Herbert Vere "Doc" Evatt, Clive jnr was born in 1931 and was called to the bar in 1956.
Evatt's sisters are equally famous: Elizabeth Evatt is a trailblazing lawyer and was the first chief judge of the Family Court of Australia, while Penelope Seidler (nee Evatt) is a distinguished architect and the wife of Harry Seidler.
Evatt, who was also a well-known art dealer and opened the Hogarth Galleries in Paddington, was struck off by the High Court in 1968 after he was found to have engaged in professional misconduct by participating in a scheme in which two solicitors, H. A. P. Veron and B. R. Miles, charged "extortionate and grossly excessive sums" to clients.
The NSW Supreme Court found Evatt "charged fees as counsel which were excessive and which he knew would be paid in part from the amounts so charged by the solicitors". The court ordered he be suspended as a barrister for two years but the Bar Association appealed to the High Court and asked that he be disbarred.
Evatt returned to the bar in 1981, when his defamation practice took off. Bookmaker Rob Waterhouse said on social media on Friday it was "a very sad day indeed: we lost my loyal friend Clive Evatt".
"Without doubt the greatest 'outside the box' lawyer ever, who simply solved difficult issues for his clients and won their cases," Waterhouse said.