A New York immigration lawyer who simply refused to communicate with regulators in relation to the investigation of serious allegations against him was not only disbarred, but was thrown by a New York court into jail for 10 days as well for good measure. Story here.

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Tim Bugg, the Law Council of Australia's chairman, gave the State of the Profession address at last weekend's 35th Australian Legal Convention. He covered many topics, but this was his take on the national legal profession project:
'With its constituent bodies, the Law Council has been a driving force behind the national legal profession project for [...]

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Now, that's a cheap headline, I know, but I couldn't resist. Queensland Legal Services Commissioner John Birton's recent speech extolling the virtues of his office does read a bit like that, but probably deservedly so. The statistics he quotes speak for themselves: he's not falling prey to the tendency of some regulators to drown in [...]

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This is what his office's website says about Queensland's Legal Services Commissioner:
'Mr John Briton is Queensland’s first Legal Services Commissioner. He was appointed in May 2004.

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Victoria Marles's office has produced two new brochures, available from Information Victoria:

'Are you making a complaint about legal costs? The LSC is required to make reasonable efforts to resolve costs disputes between legal practitioners and their clients. The brochure includes information on the maximum amount of costs which may be considered ($25,000); time limits for [...]

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Legal Blog Watch also has a couple of posts (here and here) about a fraud case going through the American courts which resulted in a Rolah McCabe-like outcome, with a judge instructing a jury to assume that the defendant, Morgan Stanley had "engaged in massive fraud". The West Palm Beach judge's reasons are here. The [...]

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Legal Blog Watch draws our attention to a CNN report of a Wisconsin lawyer who is said to have gone too far in defending a middle-aged man against allegations of sexual assault and child pornography involving  a boy. Neither article states the facts adequately, so see this article too. It was alleged that the accused [...]

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The technical defence is for me a beautiful fascination. A self-confessed "fact Nazi" and chronology enthusiast, I would nevertheless prefer not to have to charge clients for the kind of obsessive mastery of facts in complicated and long-running failed litigation which is the subject of a professional negligence suit unless absolutely necessary. Summary disposition holds [...]

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The Corporations Act contains whistleblowers provisions. Section 9.4AAA which commenced on 1 July 2004 provides extensive protections to officers, employees, and contractors of companies who report to auditors, non-anonymously and in good faith, matters which they reasonably believe suggests that a company or an employee may have breached the Corporations Act or the ASIC Act. [...]

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The Legal Services Commissioner is considerably better than were the Law Institute's Professional Standards or the Legal Ombudsman at declining to give the time of day to self-evidently unmeritorious complaints against solicitors. Mind you, she has better discretions allowing her to do so under the Legal Profession Act, 2004. I don't know what path George [...]

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