Jason Geisker

Jason is a well recognised class action and commercial litigator. He is one of the select few class action lawyers to have been formally recognised by his peers in the Doyles' rankings as a leading lawyer in the field of commercial litigation and dispute resolution in New South Wales and in the field of class actions litigators across Australia.

A tenacious, innovative and diligent lawyer, Jason pursues cases with the client’s strategic goals and objectives front of mind. Jason has acted in a number of a high profile and significant matters since his admission to practice in 1996. He oversaw the Australian class actions against Volkswagen, Audi and Skoda, which resulted in total settlement payments exceeding $170m.

Jason acts as the principal legal advisor to Claims Funding Australia Pty Ltd, Maurice Blackburn's wholly owned litigation funding business.

"Jason's pursuit to ensure the truth is presented is unwavering and cannot be faulted. I felt that he went beyond what was required in learning all technical aspects of our case and his ability to be able to communicate to the client ensured they understood these were very professional.

The client was, is, key in Jason's mind and the confidence that was seen allowed a high level of comfort in knowing that everything was being done to make the case successful. Nothing is too difficult or too much of a challenge and he will support you through a case." - Aliister Dalton, VW Class Action Lead Applicant 

A selection of cases Jason has overseen include:

• Volkswagen, Audi and Skoda class action, arising from the ‘dieselgate’ scandal over emissions test cheating around the world. The class actions were originally brought in on behalf of 100,000 Australian motorists seeking redress from the vehicle manufacturers for losses suffered as a result of the global 'dieselgate' scandal. Heavily polluting diesel vehicles were sold by VW, Audio and Skoda as low emission 'clean' diesel technology. These claims resulted in settlements of over $120m plus costs for Australian motorists. 
  
  
• City Pacific Limited litigation in the Federal Court on behalf of Trilogy Funds Management representing 11,000 investors against former City Pacific Limited directors for alleged breaches of the Corporations Act. This action culminated in a successful $63m judgment plus costs ordered against former City Pacific directors in March 2016.  This decision was successfully maintained on appeals to the Full Federal Court and the High Court of Australia. The judgment arose out of  major losses suffered by the Fund from its loans on inflated mortgage securities offered by Atkinson Gore Agricultural Pty Limited, (a Craig Gore related company).
  
  
• Nufarm class action settlement of $46.625m for over 3,000 Nufarm Ltd investors, on the basis that Nufarm had breached its continuous disclosure obligations, and also made its FY2010 forecast without any reasonable basis and had engaged in misleading conduct.
  
  
• AWB class action settlement of $39.5m for almost 1,300 eligible shareholders arising from AWB’s involvement in the United Nations ‘Oil-for-food’ kickback scandal. It was alleged that AWB failed to disclose the nature of several hundred millions dollars in unlawful kickback payments made to Saddam Hussein's regime, and that AWB engaged in misleading or deceptive conduct.
  
  
• Gunns Ltd class action on behalf of over 300 shareholders regarding Gunns' failure to disclose material information regarding a significant deterioration in its likely financial performance in 2009. 
   

“Our class action team’s unparalleled success in Australia is recognised internationally, throughout the legal profession and by litigation funders and the various corporate and government respondents against whom we take action. We are the only Australian law firm to have secured class action settlements in excess of $100 million and we have now recovered in excess of $3 billion for victims of wrongdoing in Australia.”

Since 1995 Jason has actively worked on various legal and policy reforms including access to justice issues, litigation funding developments and civil procedure.  Jason has written broadly in the developing area of class actions and litigation funding and has been quoted extensively in the media regarding the longstanding Volkswagen diesel emissions scandal and its ongoing impact on Australian motorists and the environment.

Accreditations & memberships

• Law Society of NSW member
• Australian Restructuring Insolvency & Turnaround Association (ARITA) associate member
  
• Doyles 2016 Leading NSW Commercial Litigation and Dispute Resolution Lawyers
  
• Doyles 2018 Leading NSW Commercial Litigation and Dispute Resolution Lawyers
• Doyles 2020 Leading NSW Commercial Litigation and Dispute Resolution Lawyers
• Doyles 2021 Leading NSW Commercial Litigation and Dispute Resolution Lawyers
• Doyles 2022 Leading NSW Commercial Litigation and Dispute Resolution Lawyers
• Doyles 2022 Leading Class Actions Lawyers Australia