Leigh Masel was born on 2 October 1924. His documented life is closely tied to Melbourne, the Victorian capital where he studied law, was admitted to practice, and built a long legal career.
His formative years coincided with the Second World War. In 1943 he interrupted his law studies at the University of Melbourne to join the Royal Australian Naval Volunteer Reserve, a volunteer naval force that enlarged its membership considerably during the war.
Masel studied law at the University of Melbourne, an institution established by an act of the Parliament of Victoria in 1853 with power to confer degrees in arts, medicine, laws and music. Classes began there in 1855 with three professors and sixteen students. His studies were interrupted in 1943 by naval service, and he graduated in 1948 with a Bachelor of Laws.
He later completed a Master of Laws at Monash University. Monash was established by an act of the Victorian Parliament in 1958, following the Murray Report commissioned by Prime Minister Robert Menzies, and its first students at the Clayton campus began studies in 1961. Masel had been admitted to the bar in Victoria in 1949, the year he became a partner in the Melbourne firm Phillips, Fox and Masel.
Masel's working life began with wartime naval service. In 1943 he joined the Royal Australian Naval Volunteer Reserve, a reserve force created in 1921 that drew many new members during the Second World War. The reserve was absorbed into the Royal Australian Naval Reserve in 1973.
After completing his law degree in 1948, Masel was admitted to practice in Victoria in 1949 and joined the Melbourne firm Phillips, Fox and Masel as a partner. The firm's lineage traced back to a Melbourne family of lawyers, and the practice later became part of DLA Piper Australia. Masel remained a partner until 1980 and afterwards continued as a consultant to the firm.
In 1980 he became the inaugural chairman and a full-time member of the National Companies and Securities Commission. The commission's founding legislation, the National Companies and Securities Commission Act 1979, took effect on 1 February 1980 as part of a co-operative Commonwealth and state scheme for company law and securities regulation. The commission was the predecessor of the Australian Securities Commission, which later became the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. His appointment was set to run until 1985.
Between 1985 and 1986 he also served as a part-time member of the Law Reform Commission of Victoria, a state body that reviews Victorian law and recommends reforms.
As inaugural chairman of the National Companies and Securities Commission from 1980, Masel helped establish the national regulator that later evolved into the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and helped set standards for securities regulation in Australia. The commission was created to coordinate a co-operative national scheme of company and securities regulation, so his work connected him with the early development of modern corporate regulation in Australia.
The Law Institute of Victoria is the principal professional body for lawyers in Victoria, representing the legal profession within the state. Masel's documented role in the institute was that of chairman, held in 1971.
