Marcus Einfeld

Marcus Richard Einfeld AO QC is an Australian lawyer, judge and social activist who served as a Justice of the Federal Court of Australia and the Supreme Courts of New South Wales, Western Australia and the Australian Capital Territory. He was President of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission between 1986 and 1990. Once an iconic figure of left-wing politics in Australia, Einfeld has been named in a series of alleged scandals, and was arrested for perjury on 29 March 2007.

History

Early life and education

Marcus Einfeld is the son of a prominent Sydney Labor Party member Sydney Einfeld and his wife Billie. He studied at Sydney Boys High School from 1951-5,and obtained his BA and LLB from the University of Sydney.

Legal career

Einfeld is a Former Justice, Federal Court of Australia, and has served as Justice of the Supreme Courts of New South Wales, Western Australia, the Australian Capital Territory and the Eastern Caribbean.

Marcus Einfeld was a Justice of the Federal Court of Australia until April 2001 when he retired after almost 15 years service. He has been named by the National Trust of Australia as a National Living Treasure.

Community and social involvement

Einfeld has been an executive member of the New South Wales Board of Deputies for many years and a Councillor of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry. Einfeld also started and served as the first Chairman of the Australian Campaign for the Rescue of Soviet Jewry following his earlier establishment of the London-based National Campaign for Soviet Jewry of the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Einfeld has been a spokesperson for Israeli and Jewish causes and has often confronted Palestinian supporters, the media, the UN, universities and other institutions. He was an invited speaker at United Israel Appeal (UIA) functions in Britain, the United States of America, Europe, Canada and Australia. Einfeld is Patron of the Australian Association of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Descendants and of the Sydney Jewish Museum.

Einfeld has served as AUSTCARE's "Ambassador for Refugees" and as an "Ambassador for Children" for UNICEF.

In 2002 Einfeld was presented a United Nations Association of Australia 'Founder's Award' for his contribution to justice and human rights.

Controversies

In a March 2006 address on the war on terror and civil liberties at the University of Western Sydney, Einfeld stated that Western powers, including Australia, had supported terrorist regimes financially, and that new sedition laws showed that Australia was "leaning towards an autocratic framework".

In August 2006, Einfeld contested a speeding ticket by claiming he had lent his car to an old friend, Professor Teresa Brennan, at the time it was caught by a speed camera; He also signed a statutory declaration to that effect. (While the fine was only $AUD77, a conviction would have left Einfeld with only one demerit point on his driver's license.) However, Professor Brennan had been killed in an unsolved hit and run car accident in January 2003.

Einfeld was the President of Australian Legal Resources International, a non-profit independent group of lawyers that supported democracy, human rights and the rule of law in developing countries. In August 2006 this organisation collapsed leaving creditors, including AusAID, the Australian Taxation Office, and St George Bank "thousands of dollars out of pocket."

On September 8, 2006, Einfeld gave NSW police leave to search his Woollahra home as part of their investigation of his evidence in the speeding case. They removed part of his home computer for forensic examination. On March 29, 2007, Einfeld was arrested by New South Wales police. He has been charged with 13 offences, including perjury, perverting the course of justice and making and using false statutory declarations.