11 Dec 2025Maurie Stack, 1948-2025
Maurie Stack OAM, hailed as a giant of the law in NSW, has died aged 77.
With his brothers, Ray and Tim, he built Stacks Law Firm from its base in Taree to include 15 offices across the east coast including Sydney, employing more than 180 lawyers and support staff.
The firm was established by his father, Ray Stack, in Wingham during the Great Depression. Maurie was a partner of the firm from 1971 to 2003, and then chairman of Stacks Law Group.
Stacks became one of the most recognisable law firms across NSW, with offices in regional centres and country towns helping farmers and country people with legal problems before it expanded into Sydney and interstate.
Maurie said Stacks Law Firm had a culture born in helping Australian communities when times got tough.
โDuring the Depression, my father would tell hard-pressed farmers they could pay him when times got better, but they insisted on leaving eggs, vegetables or meat. It was all they had, and he accepted it with gratitude to help preserve their dignity,โ he said.
โI have been conscious of that all my life. We are all part of a community doing our best, and communities thrive when we use the gifts we have in the service of others.โ
Maurie was respected across the legal fraternity for his advocacy for injured people. He was a founding member of the Australian Lawyers Alliance, was elected president of the NSW Law Society in 1995 and NSW president of the ALA in 2007.
Genevieve Henderson, president of the NSW Australian Lawyers Alliance, said Maurie was a passionate advocate for injured people and dedicated his life to championing justice and the rule of law.
โFor the better part of 40 years, Maurie was at the forefront of every campaign to protect the rights of the injured,โ Henderson said.
โHe was there for the overturning of Transcover, the campaigns against workersโ compensation changes and civil liability reforms plus other proposed restrictions on the rights of the injured.
โNo-one surpasses Maurie Stackโs commitment to the rights of injured people. Within the world of NSW personal injury law, Maurie was the equivalent of Pele or Beyonce โ you only had to say Maurie and everyone knew who you were talking about.โ
But law wasnโt Maurieโs only passion. He was dedicated to helping his community, locally and abroad. He served as an alderman of the Greater Taree City Council for two terms and was an active Rotarian for many decades, rising to governor of Rotary District 9650 in 2015 and elected chair of the Rotary Foundation of Australia from 2020 to 2024.
Through Rotary, he championed scores of charitable projects including, notably, construction of a hospital on the island of Nias in Indonesia following the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami. He was awarded an Order of Australia for services to the law, local government, and the community in 2001.
He was also an ambitious lover of music, taking six months off to live with his wife, Deidre, in a small village in Ireland to write his dream libretto โ a Gilbert and Sullivan-style operetta about the 1975 dismissal of Gough Whitlam.
โIt was incredible how well the Dismissal events of 1975 played out in operetta โ the drunken governor-general, the pompous prime minister, the sneaky Fraser, the femme fatale Junie Morosi all surrounded by intrigue, skulduggery and treachery,โ Maurie said.
Sadly, it remains an unfinished work.
Maurie is survived by Deidre, brothers Ray and Tim, sister Joy, children Louise, Fiona, Tammy and Ben (who is CEO of Stacks Law Firm) and eight grandsons.
A funeral service, which will be live-streamed, will be held at 10am on Saturday, December 13, at Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Church, Taree.
This article was first published by the Sydney Morning Herald on 11 December 2025.
