The former chief executive of class action firm Pogust Goodhead will return to the Mariana dam litigation through rival practice Bailey Glasser International (BGI), which claims to now be the lead solicitors in the action.
The announcement comes amid a battle for control of the next phase of the claim.
The litigation centres on the failure of the Fundão Dam, operated by Samarco, a joint venture between mining giant BHP and Brazilian company Vale. The collapse, which caused the release of some 45 million cubic metres of tailings from iron ore mining, and flood killed 19 people and destroyed entire villages.
In November last year, the High Court found the dam collapse had been ‘foreseeable’. It found BHP was ‘strictly liable’. A further trial in April 2027 – the phase 2 trial – will deal with quantum.
Goodhead, who was ousted from Pogust Goodhead last year, had been accused of improperly using investment funds intended for litigation on personal spending. He denied the allegations against him. In November 2025, he told the Gazette he had been the victim of a ‘boardroom coup’ and any corporate hospitality during his time at the firm ‘was in line with other City firms’ of Pogust Goodhead’s size.
He now returns to the case through BGI, where he will lead the claim alongside retained former Pogust Goodhead partners Jeremy Evans, Faranak Ghajavand and Guy Robson.
Senior barristers who have worked on the case since the start of the trial, including Alain Choo Choy KC and Andrew Fulton KC, also continue to be instructed. In total, more than 15 lawyers with experience on the case are moving to BGI.
Goodhead said it was an ‘extraordinary honour to return to this case’.
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He added: ‘My focus is not on the past, nor on a dispute between law firms. It is on the people affected by Mariana, on the justice they have been waiting for over a decade, and on ensuring that the case is in the strongest possible position going forward. I feel an enormous responsibility to help conclude what we started eight years ago.
‘My return is about serving the clients and ensuring that hundreds of thousands of people have the representation they deserve. What I can guarantee is that our team of lawyers is committed to providing strong and independent representation to our clients. Everything else is secondary.’
Earlier this month BGI declared that it had been chosen by a ‘client committee’ to take over the conduct of the case for the claimants. Pogust Goodhead rebuts BGI’s claim that it is now on record for the litigation. The dispute has been listed to be heard next month.
BGI said the change of representative was reported to the High Court earlier this month and ‘does not alter the terms of the contracts signed with the claimants, who only pay fees if the action is successful’.
Goodhead said: ‘Our focus now is to ensure stability and security for the victims, knowing that after 11 years justice will finally be served.’
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