Council of the Law Society v O’Brien [2019] NSWSC 1879

Supreme Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: Council of the Law Society v O'Brien [2019] NSWSC 1879 Hearing dates: 19 December 2019 Date of orders: 19 December 2019 Decision date: 19 December 2019 Jurisdiction: Common Law Before: Campbell J Decision: Declare that the expression "legal expenses" where it appears in order 1, pronounced on 4 April 2019, extends to the reasonable legal costs of these proceedings, the proposed recovery proceeding under s 246 Legal Profession Uniform Law (NSW), conduct proceedings brought against the first defendant by the plaintiff and the legal costs of the defence of the criminal proceedings now instituted against each of the first and second defendants.

Plaintiff to pay the defendants' costs of the motion. Catchwords: JUDGMENTS AND ORDERS – interpretation – freezing orders – no question of principle Legislation Cited: Drug trafficking (Civil Proceedings) Act 1990 (NSW) Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 2005 Cases Cited: New South Wales Crime Commission v Fleming; New South Wales Crime Commission v Hill (1991) 24 NSWLR 116 Vasilaris v Laprese [2019] SC 56 Category: Procedural and other rulings Parties: Council of the Law Society of New South Wales (Respondent/Plaintiff to the Motion) Mark Leo O'Brien (Applicant/Defendant to the Motion) Representation: Counsel: Henry El-Hage (Law Society) R.R. Stitt QC (Applicant/Defendant) A. Herring (Second Defendant)

Solicitors: Law Society of New South Wales (Respondent/Plaintiff) Boyd House and Partners (Applicant/Defendant) File Number(s): 2019/104595