CAMPBELL JOHN WALLIS v THE LAW SOCIETY OF NEW SOUTH WALES [1988] NSWCA 165

CAMPBELL JOHN WALLIS v THE LAW SOCIETY OF NEW SOUTH WALES

SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES COURT OF APPEAL

MAHONEY, HOPE and CLARKE JJA 18 October 1988, 8 November 1988 [1988] NSWCA 165

Legal Practitioners — Solicitor — Appeal against order that he be struck from roll — Professional misconduct admitted — Determination of Order to be made — Practice of "kiting" in Trust Account — Consideration to be given to material and emotional pressures upon solicitors — Appeal dismissed with costs.

Mahoney JA As the result, as the court is informed, of a routine inspection ofMr Wallis's accounts, he was cited before the Solicitors Statutory Committee to answer a number of charges of professional misconduct occurring over a period of some sixteen months between 10 May 1984 and 30 September 1985. The charges are particularised in the Statement of the Findings of the Statutory Committee. On 15 July 1987 the Statutory Committee found the charges established and ordered that Mr Wallis be removed from the Roll of Solicitors. He has appealed to this Court against that order.

Before the Statutory Committee and before this Court, the charges were divided into four groups. Those dealing with the trust account records of the solicitor and his financial dealing as recorded in the trust account; the breach of his fiduciary duty to Mrs Lynne Pursley; unauthorised delegation of authority to operate upon his trust account; and his false certification, in his applications for renewal of practising certificates in the years 1984, 1985 and 1986, that he had complied with the relevant sections of the Legal Practitioners Act and had not borrowed from his clients in contravention of the Law Society's Special Bulletin No 2 of 1979.

In order to understand the findings made by the Statutory Committee and the nature of the case presented by Mr Wallis to this Court, it is necessary to refer, in outline, to the charges and the particulars given in respect of them. The charges were set forth in the following form: