Ex parte Lenehan [1948] HCA 45

High Court of Australia Latham C.J. Rich, Starke, Dixon and Williams JJ. Ex parte Lenehan [1948] HCA 45

ORDER Appeal allowed. Order of the Supreme Court discharged and in lieu thereof declare the appellant is a fit and proper person to be admitted as a solicitor. Matter remitted to the Supreme Court to be dealt with consistently with this order. Appellant to pay the costs of the Incorporated Law Institute of New South Wales of this appeal and of the Supreme Court.

Cur. adv. vult.

The following written judgments were delivered:—

Dec. 16 Latham C.J.,Dixon and Williams JJ.

This is an appeal by an applicant for admission as a solicitor from an order of the Supreme Court of New South Wales dismissing his application. The appeal is brought without special leave in reliance upon the unreported decision of this Court in Thomas v. The Incorporated Law Society of New South Wales, 18th April 1929 [1] , in which the court overruled an objection that a judgment or order involving the right to practise as a solicitor cannot fall within s. 35 (1) (a) (2) of the Judiciary Act 1903-1947.

1. Noted 3 A.L.J. 32.

No objection was taken to the competence of the present appeal.

The appellant's qualification for admission rests upon rule 428 (g) of the Rules of Court. Sub-paragraph (1) of that rule prescribes as conditions of such qualification that the person claiming to be eligible for admission shall have attained thirty years of age and shall have completed the term of ten years of clerkship in the office or offices of a solicitor or solicitors practising in New South Wales and shall have been for at least five of such years managing clerk in such office or offices and shall have passed the examination prescribed by the rules. The appellant has fulfilled or complied with all the foregoing conditions. But sub-par. (2) requires that such a person shall have been a managing clerk for the five years immediately preceding his application unless in any case the judges shall otherwise direct. The appellant's application, dismissed by the order under appeal, was made in 1947 and during the five years preceding he had been either serving in the army or employed by the Rural Bank in its legal branch, that is its solicitors' office, and he had not been managing clerk.