Walsh v Law Society (NSW) [1999] HCA 33

High Court of Australia Gleeson CJ McHugh, Gummow, Kirby and Callinan JJ Walsh v Law Society (NSW) [1999] HCA 33

ORDER

1. Appeal allowed with costs.

2. Set aside the orders made by the New South Wales Court of Appeal on 15 December 1997, except for those orders numbered 6 and 7, and in place of the orders set aside order that the New South Wales Court of Appeal hear and determine the appeal and cross-appeal to that court conformably with the reasons for judgment of this Court.

Cur adv vult

The following written judgments were delivered:—

5 August 1999 Gleeson CJ.

1. This matter was argued in the Court of Appeal of New South Wales upon the basis, adopted by counsel who then appeared for the parties, that the appeal to that court from the Legal Services Tribunal was by way of a new hearing. That assumption was evidently made in the belief that s 171F(4) of the Legal Profession Act 1987 NSW applied. When, in the course of argument in this Court, Gummow J questioned that assumption, it was found, and accepted by counsel, to be erroneous. The error was important, because the Court of Appeal regarded itself as free to take an approach to the issues, and facts, substantially different from that taken by the Legal Services Tribunal.

2. I agree with the orders proposed by Gummow J and with his reasons for those orders.

McHugh, Kirby and Callinan JJ.

3. In 1962 Mr Ronald Walsh (the appellant) was admitted to practise as a solicitor of the Supreme Court of New South Wales. He practised variously in partnership and as a sole practitioner. He served on a number of professional bodies becoming a councillor of the Law Society of New South Wales (the Law Society) and eventually its Treasurer. In December 1997 the New South Wales Court of Appeal [1] , in an appeal by the Law Society, ordered that his name be removed from the roll of legal practitioners.