Council of the Law Society of NSW v Messiha [2019] NSWCATOD 32

Civil and Administrative Tribunal New South Wales Medium Neutral Citation: Council of the Law Society of NSW v Messiha [2019] NSWCATOD 32 Hearing dates: 4 February 2019 Date of orders: 22 February 2019 Decision date: 22 February 2019 Jurisdiction: Occupational Division Before: R Dawson, Senior Member P Moran, Senior Member B Thomson, General Member Decision: (1) The Respondent be reprimanded; (2) The Respondent pay a fine of $10,000; (3) The Respondent undertake further education with the following terms: (a) within six months of the date of publication of these Reasons for Decision, the Respondent, at her own cost is to enrol and to successfully complete, by achieving a pass mark of not less than 50%, the Legal Practice Management - Sole Practitioners Course (as modified below) conducted by the College of Law NSW; (b) the course is to contain (in addition to all the other modules), specific modules which address legal ethics and in particular a solicitor's obligations when dealing with the receipt and payment of trust monies received from and disbursed for clients; (c) at the time of her enrolment, the Respondent must provide to the Chief Executive Officer of the College of Law NSW, a copy of this order so that the modules can be formulated and provided for in the course to be undertaken by the Respondent; and (d) upon her enrolment and again upon her successful completion of the course, the Respondent must provide written evidence within seven days to the Applicant of each event. (4) The Respondent pay the costs of the Law Society of New South Wales as agreed or assessed. Catchwords: Legal practitioner; Professional misconduct; Misappropriation of trust funds; breaches of the Legal Profession Uniform Law (NSW); breaches of the Legal Profession Uniform General Rules Legislation Cited: Legal Profession Uniform Law (NSW) Legal Profession Uniform Law Regulation Cases Cited: Law Society of New South Wales v Penfold [1997] NSWLST 23 Law Society of New South Wales v Goold [2001] NSWADT 171 Law Society of New South Wales v McNamara [2007] NSWADT 162 Law Society of New South Wales v Shehadie (No 2) {2016} NSWCATOD 151 Texts Cited: Nil Category: Principal judgment Parties: Council of the Law Society of NSW (Applicant) Nadia Messiha (Respondent) Representation: Counsel: S Barnes (Respondent.)