William Lasica was an Australian lawyer who practised in Melbourne, Victoria, after being admitted to the bar in Victoria in 1948. He began as a sole practitioner, later became a partner of Phillips Fox, and was known for commercial law work that extended to the arts and to new social enterprises.
Background
William Lasica was born on 8 May 1921 and was known as Bill. Before and during his university studies, he worked with his father in the family clothing business, a combination that shaped the early years of his working life.
He spent his professional life in Melbourne, where the legal profession of Victoria developed under the regulatory oversight of its law society and bar. He died of pneumonia at Cabrini Hospital in Malvern, Victoria, on 12 February 2012, at the age of 90.
Education
Lasica studied commerce at the University of Melbourne and then completed a Master of Laws, combining a business-oriented first degree with a formal legal qualification.
Law was taught at the University of Melbourne from 1857, when the course awarded a practising certificate after two years of study. Lasica's legal training therefore belonged to a long-established Melbourne law program that prepared students for admission to practise in Victoria.
Career
Lasica was admitted to the bar in Victoria in 1948. The Law Institute of Victoria, founded in 1859 as a professional association of solicitors, had been confirmed in 1947 as the body regulating the legal profession in the state, so his admission took place within that regulated system.
He began his career as a sole practitioner, and his practice operated under the name William Lasica and Co. Later he became a partner of Phillips Fox, a Melbourne law firm whose later history included the merger of its Melbourne practice into DLA Piper.
When his practice merged with Phillips Fox and Masel, he became a consultant to the combined firm. Phillips Fox and Masel later became part of DLA Piper, the international law firm formed through a merger in the early 2000s.
Lasica's commercial law practice extended beyond corporate clients to arts organisations and to new social enterprises.
Personality
An obituary headline described him as a charmer who touched many people in law and life.
