LAW SOCIETY OF NEW SOUTH WALES v WALSH [1997] NSWCA 185

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/reports/caseml]/case/urj/9706885

LAW SOCIETY OF NEW SOUTH WALES v WALSH

SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES COURT OF APPEAL

5 PowELL, BEAZLEY JJA and CLARKE AJA

12 June 1997, 15 December 1997

[1997] NSWCA 185

Legal Practitioners — Misconduct and discipline — Solicitors — Complaints — Of professional misconduct — Of unsatisfactory professional conduct — Whether conduct occurred in connection with the practice of law — Whether conduct justifies finding practitioner not of good fame and character — Appropriate order.

Powell JA The questions which fall for decision in this appeal and cross-appeal from the determination of, and orders made by, the Legal Services Tribunal on 12 September 1996 in respect of an Information which had been laid

by the Appellant on 8 March 1996 are: 1. whether, when dealing with the first ground of complaint in the Information, the Tribunal erred:

a. in holding that the conduct of the Respondent the subject of that ground of complaint was not conduct occurring in connection with the practice of law;

b. in holding that the conduct of the Respondent the subject of that ground of complaint was such that the Respondent was not of good fame and character and that, accordingly, that conduct constituted "statutory professional misconduct";

c. in holding that the fact that the Respondent's conduct the subject of that ground of complaint constituted "statutory professional misconduct" did not justify a finding that the Respondent was not a fit and proper person to remain on the roll of legal practitioners; and

d. in holding that the appropriate protective order to be made in respect of the "statutory professional misconduct" which it had held established was for the imposition of a fine of a $8,000.00;