Maurice Thompson is a partner based in Australia and is HFW's global Head of Litigation Funding. With over 30 years of experience, Maurice specialises in large-scale, multi-jurisdictional arbitrations and litigation in the shipping, aerospace, energy, drones, oil & gas, natural resources, commodities, projects and insurance sectors. He is internationally recognised as a leading practitioner in achieving litigation funding for large and complex cases globally.

Maurice is a lawyer with a proven growth mindset. In addition to his early pivot into the use of litigation funding, this is evidenced by the various first to market initiatives he has conceptualised and successfully executed during his career, including: (i) a first to market insurance subrogation practice in Dubai ('Gulf Recoveries'); (ii) a first to market international cross-sector 'Drones' practice; (iii) co-authoring the leading international legal textbook on drones “Drone Law and Policy: Global Development, Risks, Regulation and Insurance” (Routledge 2021); and (iv) co-authoring a leading international textbook on emerging insurance risks “The Global Insurance Market and Change: Emerging Technologies, Risks and Legal Challenges” (Routledge 2023: Lloyds Insurance Law Library Series).

Maurice's expertise includes advising clients in Australia, APAC and the Middle East on disputes arising from marine casualties; offshore wind, oil and gas facilities' construction, performance and offtake; biosecurity issues; trade credit insurance; and the international trading of minerals, hydrocarbon products, and agricultural commodities. He has a particularly active practice relating to the offshore wind, oil and gas sectors. He has acted for clients with interests or disputes arising out of projects in the JPDA in the Timor Sea, Yunlin Wind Farm, ICHTHYS, Wheatstone, Gorgon, Kitan Oil Field, Bayu-Udan, Greater Sunrise and the Australian North West Shelf. 

In the aerospace sector, Maurice played a pivotal role in representing airlines and their insurers in the defence of multiple Australian Court proceedings stemming from the MH17, MH370, and Germanwings 9525 casualties.

In the drones / advanced mobility sector, Maurice has been engaged by corporates internationally to assist in the establishment of drone freight services in remote land-based areas and across archipelagos, and by insurance majors, governments and regulators globally with regards compliance, policy creation, registration, regulation and insurance policy wordings for the use of drones.

In the litigation funding sector, Maurice has successfully secured funding both domestically and internationally for large and complex claims involving shipping, natural resources, commodity trading, biosecurity losses, toxic tort and marine pollution cases, with damages per case ranging between AUD$100m and AUD$500m.

Maurice holds an LLB (Bond, Australia), an LLM (Shipping: Hons)(UCT, South Africa), an LLM (Admiralty: Distinction)(Tulane, USA), is admitted to practice in Australia, England and Wales and has worked in the Middle East (1998-2003) and China (2006).