On 13 August 2008, Deputy President O'Dwyer found charges of misconduct at common law made out against Kylie Minogue's one-time solicitor, the man towards the centre of the government's Operation Wickenby investigation, Michael Brereton. See Legal Services Commissioner v Brereton [2008] VCAT 1723. Mr O'Dwyer found he had transferred more than $2.3 million of [...]
Entries Tagged as 'Ethics'
Kylie's one-time lawyer goes down, with a 'disgraceful and dishonourable' finding
August 28th, 2008 · No Comments
Tags: "disgraceful and dishonourable" · Discipline · Legal Practice Act · Legal Services Commissioner · Misconduct · Trust money · common law · conflicts · duty and interest · prosecutorial failures
The implied undertaking yields to compulsion; relevance to a second proceeding a powerful 'special circumstance'
August 1st, 2008 · No Comments
Justice Pagone's decision in Griffiths & Beerens Pty Ltd v Duggan [2008] VSC 230 came along just at the very moment I needed to find out the answer to a question I have always been unsure about. Say you have documents from one proceeding obtained from the other side on discovery. They are [...]
Tags: Ethics · duties of confidentiality · duties regarding witnesses · duty to court · litigation ethics
Robyn Tampoe, Schapelle Corby's solicitor
July 6th, 2008 · 5 Comments
Update, 7 July 2008: Watch the video of Tampoe slagging off his client here.
Original post: Lawyers and their regulators should care about the Corby case, because at the relevant time, a lot of people loved Schapelle and Schapelle does not now much like her lawyers. One of them has hit back, calling the Corbys [...]
Tags: "disgraceful and dishonourable" · Client Legal Privilege · Ethics · Fiduciary duties · Misconduct · advertising · duties of confidentiality · duties regarding witnesses · duty to court · litigation ethics
Both sides apply to restrain the other's lawyers from acting
April 8th, 2008 · No Comments
I prepared an application to restrain a firm of solicitors from acting in a Corporations List matter in the Supreme Court recently, and so have been reading the latest cases about conflict injunctions. The very latest is TJ Board & Sons Pty Ltd v Castello [2008] VSC 91, where the plaintiff applied unsuccessfully to [...]
Tags: Ethics · conflicts · current client and past client · duties of confidentiality · duty and duty · duty and interest
Rise of the celebrity QC and of Australian lawyer rankings
March 16th, 2008 · 1 Comment
Update, 7 June 2008: The Age's weekend magazine had a front cover profile of Dave Hughes, and the same day the June Australian Financial Review Magazine had a front cover profile of Tom Hughes. Diverse and powerful as Tom's family is, I do not think it counts Dave as a member. This is the most [...]
Tags: Criminal liability · Discipline · Ethics · advertising
I have only respect and honour for your Honour
March 7th, 2008 · 1 Comment
Schadenfreude being a German word, I suppose this must be an example of überschadenfreude. To watch this man digging his own grave made my guts clench up with distress. An advocate turns up more than an hour late to run a criminal trial in a Las Vegas court for a man facing a life sentence. [...]
Tags: Criminal liability · duty to court · litigation ethics
Unilateral communications with the Court
March 1st, 2008 · 1 Comment
Justice Young, the editor of the Australian Law Journal, has gone public with his frustration at litigants constantly ringing his associate to dob in the other side for missing deadlines. Here's The Australian's article. He reiterates the unambiguity of the rule against unilateral communications. Generally, one never corresponds with a judge in relation [...]
Tags: Ethics · litigation ethics
Britney Spears's 'doctor' criticised for public comments
February 8th, 2008 · 1 Comment
I am always astounded how many professionals make public comments about their clients. I cannot really understand why society allows lawyers to publish their memoirs. I read John Marsden's memoirs, and was not impressed by his comments about Ivan Milat. If I remember correctly, they suggested, or rekindled the suggestion in [...]
Tags: Ethics · doctors · duties of confidentiality
Application by appellant to remove respondent's trial counsel from appeal dismissed
February 5th, 2008 · No Comments
In Chen v Chan [2008] VSCA 2, President Maxwell and Justice of Appeal Redlich dismissed an application by the appellant for an order enjoining the respondent's solicitor and counsel from acting in the appeal. The applicant alleged that there had been wrongdoing by the respondent's lawyers at the trial. In fact that was [...]
Tags: Abuse of process · Ethics · Professional regulation · concurrent duties · conflicts · duty and interest · duty to court · litigation ethics
Stephen Keim SC, Dr Haneef's barrister
January 30th, 2008 · No Comments
A delegate of John Britton, Queensland's Legal Services Commissioner, has declined to lay disciplinary charges against Dr Haneef's lawyer, Stephen Keim QC, despite finding a clear breach of a rule of professional conduct, and that — to my astonishment — Mr Keim gave his client's record of interview to The Australian without having sought Dr [...]
Tags: Ethics · Professional regulation · advertising · litigation ethics

