Martin Hyde

Martin Hyde studied at the University of Sydney and Cambridge University. After a short period working as a criminal prosecutor in Sydney, he returned to the UK where he worked in the litigation department at Travers Smith. During his seven years at Travers Smith, Martin worked on a wide range of matters including the multi-billion dollar Enron shareholder class action. He also worked on death row cases on behalf of convicted prisoners from Trinidad and Tobago and was a trustee of the London Capital Cases Trust, the body that oversees final appeals by Caribbean death row prisoners to the Privy Council.

Martin Hyde returned to Australia in 2007 and joined Maurice Blackburn. He conducted the Centro Class Action, which settled six weeks into trial for $200m, making it the largest ever securities class action settlement in Australia. He then worked on the class action arising out of the 2009 Kilmore – Kinglake bushfire. It was caused by a fallen power line. The fire killed 119 people and destroyed 2500 homes. The case went to trial which ran for 16 months. After trial but before judgment, the parties agreed to settle for half a billion dollars, making it the largest class action settlement ever in Australia.

Martin was part of the legal team representing indigenous land owners in their Federal Court challenge to the placement of a nuclear waste dump on Muckaty Station in the Northern Territory and he continues to work with a number of Aboriginal communities and organisations.

In 2014, Martin Hyde was appointed Director of the litigation funding firms Claims Funding Europe and Claims Funding International. These entities are based in Dublin, Ireland.

In February 2019, Martin was appointed the Head of Litigation Funding at Maurice Blackburn, with oversight of the Claims Funding businesses that the firm has an interest in. These businesses currently support litigation across five continents on behalf of the victims of corporate and government misconduct.