doona under bed stories.

 Mariusz Pavel Podleska

(1955-2001)

By Rick Burbidge QC

Mariusz Pavel Podleska, barrister, was killed in a

traffic accident at Balmain on Thursday 8 March.

Mariusz was born in Stalinogrod, Poland on 10

February 1955, the only son of a classical musician and a

great Polish beauty. The family migrated to Hobart in

1966. The family was granted Australian citizenship the

following year.

Mariusz attended a local high school, where he

experienced the problems associated with an absence of

knowledge of the local language, a disability which he

quickly overcame. At age 18, suffocating within the close

confines of the local Polish community, Mariusz escaped to

sea, joining a Sydney-Hobart yacht, which was sailing on

to New Zealand. He was, alas, quickly tracked down

through the international Polish brotherhood, and in a

negotiated return to the bosom of his family he agreed to

study law, but in Canberra. His sharp intellect enabled him

to graduate at ANU as a Bachelor of Arts, with Honours

in Philosophy and Politics. Though an excellent student,

Mariusz, gifted with European charm, polished and far too

good-looking, settled into the life of an antipodean

Sebastian Flyte. He revelled in university life, but his

leisurely pursuit of learning ultimately came to an end with

his graduation in law, again, with Honours, in 1982.

In 1983 Mariusz was admitted as a solicitor in New

South Wales and the ACT, and commenced work with

Dawson Waldron, with Hugh Keller his supervising

partner. In 1986 he was called to the New South Wales

Bar, and in subsequent years was admitted to the bars in Tasmania and Western Australia. Mariusz' first chambers were on 10 Wentworth, then lead by Ken Handley QC. He read with Tony Bellanto QC and Martin Einfeld QC, accepting briefs in all jurisdictions, but steering himself towards corporate and equity work where possible. He later joined Windeyer Chambers and in 1991 I invited him to join my new chambers in the State Bank building. He later joined King Chambers under John Dowd QC and 3 Selborne Chambers under Peter Capelin QC. During his practice years Mariusz involved himself in academic pursuits of many kinds, and his interest in academic law which he implemented by taking on a variety of teaching positions to some extent overshadowed his pursuit of professional eminence. He held at different times the posts of examiner in Constitutional Law at Sydney University, Resident Tutor in Law at St Andrews College, Lecturer in Practice and Procedure for the Solicitors' and Barristers' Admissions Board course and occasional examiner and lecturer at the College of Law. Mariusz was a gregarious man, with an enviable generosity of spirit. He loved the law, its theatricalities and its philosophies. He personally sparked the interest of numerous young practitioners, whom he supported with gifts of books, his own boundless enthusiasm and wisdom. In 1997 he was advised that he had a terminal illness, and he determined to grapple with that issue alone. He gave up practice, and resided for some 18 months in Byron Bay. He succeeded in confounding his medical advisors, and by 1999 was looking to resume part-time practice. He joined Lismore Chambers, headed up by Geoff Radburn, and began intermittent practice in the Northern Rivers District. Mariusz was however not really suited to the demanding circuit court life of the common law, nor did his health prove as robust as he had hoped. He accordingly sought refuge in the academic world, and in 2000 secured work as a part time member of the Southern Cross University Law School, and as a teacher at the University of New England School of Law. Tragically, he had secured a position of a more permanent nature with the University of Newcastle on the day prior to his death. He was a colourful figure against the increasingly neutral background of the Bar, and his passing at such an early age is a great sadness to all who knew him.