John Marsden (lawyer)

In 2008, Rights Australia, a non-profit lobby group, established the John Marsden Lecture, with the inaugural lecture delivered by Justice Michael Kirby.

Marsden died of stomach cancer while on holiday in Turkey on 17 May 2006, attended on his last night by two Catholic clerics, Father Peter Confeggi, a long-time personal friend, and Father Gerald Iverson. He had been battling the disease for four years. He was buried, according to his wishes, in a solemn Catholic Requiem Mass at St John's Church, Campbelltown.

In 2004, Marsden accepted an invitation from British/Italian lawyer Giovanni di Stefano to join Saddam Hussein's defence team. Marsden was receiving treatment for stomach cancer at the time, and it is unclear how active his involvement in the case was; the trial was still ongoing at the time of Marsden's death.

Legal commentator Richard Ackland described the case as "probably the biggest piece of civil litigation NSW has seen for many years... without doubt the largest, longest and most comprehensive defamation case in the history of Australia. And probably one of the biggest in the history of the common law world." In 2002, the New South Wales Court of Appeal ruled that the compensation payout should have included consideration for hurt feelings, and ordered a new trial on damages. Marsden and Seven subsequently came to a confidential out-of-court settlement, estimated by various parties as somewhere between A$6 million and A$9 million.

In 2002 he received a Gold Medal Award for services to the Returned Services' League movement.

In 2001, after 214 days of hearings, Justice David Levine ruled that Seven had failed to prove its allegations of child sexual abuse. Marsden was awarded A$525,000 in damages and legal costs; Marsden's legal costs were estimated at around A$6 million; Seven's own costs at that stage were estimated at A$10–12 million.

Deirdre Grusovin, a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, speaking under parliamentary privilege in 1994, accused Marsden of having sex with minors. In 1995 and 1996, the Seven Network's shows Today Tonight and Witness also aired allegations of having sex with minors against Marsden. In response, Marsden described himself as a "promiscuous homosexual" but denied allegations of paedophilia. Channel Seven produced witnesses who claimed to have sex with Marsden while underage, but many were discredited by errors on points of fact, such as the type of house Marsden lived in and, in one case, whether he was circumcised.

In 1994, Marsden was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for his service to the Law Society of New South Wales and the community.

Contesting the seat of Campbelltown in the 1973 state election for the Liberals, Marsden was unsuccessful.

Serial killer Ivan Milat was a client of Marsden. Marsden had a long association with the Milat family and had successfully represented Ivan Milat on charges of rape in the 1970s. Milat sacked Marsden shortly after being arrested in 1994 for the backpacker murders. In 2005, after falling ill with cancer, Marsden indicated his belief that Milat had had an accomplice, and expressed some regrets about his success in helping Milat avoid conviction on the earlier rape charges. He recounted an incident that had happened during trial on those charges: after the first day in court, during which Milat appeared likely to be convicted, Marsden - then a closeted homosexual - went to a gay bar and noticed the two alleged victims there. The next day in court he outed them as lesbians and relied on the jury's prejudices to attack their credibility and win acquittal for Milat.

Born in Lismore, Marsden attended a Catholic school in Cabramatta, St John's Preparatory College in Campbelltown and St Joseph's College, Hunters Hill, before entering a seminary to study for the priesthood. After deciding the priesthood was not for him, he completed a law degree at the University of Sydney, graduating in 1966 with a Bachelor of Laws. In 1968 Marsden established Marsdens, a law firm in Campbelltown. The firm grew from Marsden as a sole practitioner to being among the largest law firms in the Sydney area with 140 personnel and offices in Sydney, Liverpool, Camden, and Campbelltown. Marsden was a prominent resident of Campbelltown throughout his life and was often quoted as saying "There are two great cities in the world - Rome and Campbelltown." In 1974, Marsden was awarded a Master of Laws.

John Robert Marsden AM (3 January 1942 – 17 May 2006) was an Australian solicitor and former President of the Law Society of New South Wales. He was known for his high-profile clients, his gay rights activism, and his victory in a defamation action against the Seven Network.