For more than 50 years, Tom Hughes was one of Australia's most revered barristers. He appeared in a raft of celebrated cases, became the subject of many media profiles and from the 1970s to the 1990s was the country's most expensive advocate.
Hughes was born in Sydney in 1923 into an upper-middle-class family committed to public service, the older brother of art critic and historian Robert Hughes.
He was educated at Saint Ignatius' College and the University of Sydney, where he studied law.
In 1941 Hughes enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force and flew planes in the invasion of Normandy during World War II. For his courage in the air, he was awarded the French Legion d'honneur in 2005.
On his return from the War, Hughes completed his law degree, was admitted to the Bar in 1949, and spent the next few years establishing himself as a respected lawyer in Sydney.
In 1962 he became a QC and was later president of the New South Wales Bar Association between 1973 and 1975. As an advocate, he has been recognised as a leader in the areas of constitutional, commercial and defamation law.
Hughes was made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 1988 for services to the legal profession and only retired from the law in October 2013, just shy of his 90th birthday.
Outside of his law career, the accomplished Australian has also worked as a politician.
At the 1963 federal election, he defeated the long-serving Labor member Les Haylen to unexpectedly win the seat of Parkes. He later became the member for Berowra when Parkes was abolished.
From 1969 to 1971 he worked as the Attorney-General of Australia under John Gorton but was removed from the role when Billy McMahon replaced Gorton in 1971 and retired from politics in 1972.
Hughes' multi-faceted life was laid bare in the 2016 biography, Tom Hughes QC: A Cab on the Rank, by Ian Hancock.
He has three children, including daughter Lucy Turnbull, the former Lord Mayor of Sydney and spouse of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.