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NSW solicitor to be struck off for destroying documents, lying to investigator
For more than a year, a Sydney solicitor lied, falsified information and destroyed documents to keep a Law Society investigator from uncovering the true extent of his misconduct.
Naomi Neilson
James Jianshu Feng, a former partner of Loyal One Solicitors and sole principal of his own law practice, has consented to a finding he engaged in professional misconduct and a recommendation for his name to be removed from the roll of practitioners.
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In his absence and without the need for a hearing, given his consent, the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT) made the orders on the grounds Mr Feng did not comply with trust account obligations and provided incorrect information to a trust account investigator.
Also among the allegations levelled against him by the NSW Law Society, Mr Feng was said to have altered documents, breached an undertaking, deleted email correspondence with clients and lied about their existence, and failed to keep appropriate records.
In one of the more shocking claims NCAT heard, Mr Feng was accused of leaving out the name, account number and BSB of a payee who transferred him over $44,000 in December 2017.
Between March 2017 and September 2019, the tribunal heard Mr Feng regularly did not prepare trust account receipts or record receipt numbers, failed to keep written trust payment records, and held a cash book that was missing vital client information.
NCAT deputy president Nancy Hennessy ADCJ, together with senior member Nicholas Matkovich and general member Bruce Thomson, found Mr Feng’s conduct was “antithetical to the central requirements for being a fit and proper person, namely honesty and integrity”.
As the conduct occurred over a year, the members said it could “not be described as a momentary lapse of judgment”.
“We are satisfied that the practitioner is not a fit and proper person to be an officer of the Supreme Court and is likely to be unfit for the indefinite future,” the members found.
In addition to the recommendation his name be struck and a finding of professional misconduct recorded, Mr Feng has been ordered to pay the Law Society’s costs of the proceeding.
