Maurice Blackburn Lawyers

Class Actions

Principal Lawyer

Julian Schimmel is a leading plaintiff class actions lawyer in Australia, with experience across a range of different cases and a track record of achieving major class action settlements. He is currently responsible for the Volkswagen, Audi and Skoda class actions on behalf of consumers arising from the international “dieselgate” emissions issue.

With more than two decades in legal practice, Julian has broad experience across different areas of class actions practice, including complex product liability claims as well as shareholder claims and other types of class actions.

Julian is currently leading a shareholder class action against Boral Ltd as well as another shareholder class action against Treasury Wine Estates Ltd.

Julian’s past major cases include the DePuy ASR hip implants class action, which resulted in a landmark settlement of $250 million in 2016, as well as a separate class action concerning the LCS Duofix knee implants class action which settled in 2012.

In addition Julian led the class actions on behalf of Australian motorists whose cars were affected by the Volkswagen, Audi and Skoda diesel emissions issue. The settlement of those cases resulted in $124 million plus legal costs being paid to more than 40,000 eligible claimants. Among other cases, Julian also worked on the AWB shareholder class action, the OZ Minerals shareholder class action and a cartel class action against Amcor/Visy. Julian also initiated and worked on a class action against the NSW Government over the false imprisonment of children by police, which later settled and resulted in compensation being paid to many children.

Julian is also a regular presenter and panellist at conferences on class actions practice, procedure and policy issues, and his academic work has been published in The Cambridge Handbook of Class Actions (edited by Brian T Fitzpatrick and Randall S Thomas; 2021) and in the Journal of Personal Injury Law.

Before joining Maurice Blackburn in December 2007, Julian had four years’ experience as a criminal defence lawyer at the Aboriginal Legal Service in Redfern and Wollongong. He also previously worked as a lawyer at the NSW Crown Solicitor's Office and also spent two years working at the NSW Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.

University of New South Wales Law School’s Law Advisory Council NSW Law Society member Australian Lawyers Alliance

LLB, BCom - UNSW