Council of the Law Society of New South Wales v Koops [2021] NSWCATOD 38

Civil and Administrative Tribunal New South Wales Medium Neutral Citation: Council of the Law Society of New South Wales v Koops [2021] NSWCATOD 38 Hearing dates: 10 March 2021 Date of orders: 10 March 2021 Decision date: 08 April 2021 Jurisdiction: Occupational Division Before: D Fairlie, Senior Member G Ulman, Senior Member B Thomson, General Member Decision: (1) The Respondent is reprimanded; (2) The Respondent be fined in the sum of $5,000; (3) The Respondent pay the Applicant's costs as agreed or assessed; (4) The disclosure of the name of any client of the Respondent referred to in the pleadings and evidence and Instrument of Consent filed by the parties, or any material fact or information that could identify those clients, is prohibited; and (5) The Respondent is to undertake further education as follows: (i) at his own expense, complete within 12 months of the date of these orders an appropriate course in trust accounting (Course), as approved by the Director, Legal Regulation of the Law Society of New South Wales (Director), and therein achieve a pass mark of not less than 50% (Pass Mark); (ii) within 7 days of the receipt of notification of the result of his participation in the Course, provide the original or a legible copy of such notification to the Director; (iii) should the Respondent fail to achieve the Pass Mark, he must complete a further course as approved by the Director until he achieves the Pass Mark in any further nominated course; and (iv) should the Respondent not achieve the Pass Mark within the period prescribed in (i) above, any practising certificate then held by the Respondent shall be suspended (or if not holding a current practising certificate, no such certificate shall be issued to him) until such time as he achieves the Pass Mark. Catchwords: OCCUPATIONS — legal practitioners — misconduct and discipline — unsatisfactory professional conduct and professional misconduct — instrument of consent — reprimand — fine — costs Legislation Cited: Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 2013 (NSW) Legal Profession Uniform Law (NSW) Legal Profession Uniform Law Application Act 2014 (NSW) Cases Cited: Carr v Council of the Law Society of New South Wales [2020] NSWCA 276 Texts Cited: Nil Category: Principal judgment Parties: Council of the Law Society of New South Wales (Applicant) Harland Sebastian Koops (Respondent) Representation: Counsel: T Power (Respondent) Solicitors: Law Society of NSW (Applicant) Bartier Perry (Respondent) File Number(s): 2020/00150187 Publication restriction: Nil