A disgraced lawyer was struck off for a number of jaw-dropping offences, including stealing tens of thousands of dollars from an elderly client and forging family court orders to fool her ex.
Samantha Gow, a former principal lawyer of Gow Group Legal Services in Queensland, was struck from the roll of legal practitioners by the NSW Supreme Court’s Chief Justice Andrew Bell, Justice Christine Adamson, and Justice Richard McHugh.
The removal application centred on Gow’s breach of an undertaking to complete a practice management course in March 2016, but the prothonotary of the Supreme Court advanced 27 particulars.
This included 2014 convictions for breach of bail and being drunk in a public place, dishonest conduct in 2017 with client money, and Gow’s 2021 convictions for forging and uttering court documents purporting to be orders from the then-Federal Circuit Court.
“The cumulative effect of the conduct proved against the respondent is that she is not a fit and proper person to remain on the roll,” Justice Adamson said in her written reasons, published last week.
“Further, the respondent’s conduct in relation to [the client] and the misuse of the trust account and her separate conduct in forging and uttering court orders of the Federal Circuit Court would each independently have warranted her removal from the roll.”
With respect to the client’s funds, the Supreme Court noted the woman was 72 at the time she retained Gow to assist with the joint purchase of a unit in Surfers Paradise in August 2017.
The client transferred $57,000, being her share of the unit, into Gow’s trust account. About $20,500 was withdrawn into the office account, and $10,343 of that was taken for Gow’s personal expenses.
A manager appointed by the Law Society discovered Gow transferred all funds from trust and office accounts of her practice in return for bank cheques that totalled $47,120. A stop was put on the cheques.
The client made a successful claim to the Fidelity Fund for the $10,000, plus interest, that the manager was unable to recover.
In September 2021, Gow pleaded guilty in the Queensland Magistrates Court to forging and uttering documents to convince her former partner and their child’s school of false court orders.
In mid-2018, a search warrant was executed at Gow’s residence and computer files of documents similar to the fake orders were seized.
She was sentenced to a term of imprisonment of nine months, suspended after 70 days.
Justice Adamson said Gow’s conduct had “the consequence of undermining the trust which the community is entitled to place in documents which appear to be court orders”.
“Her conduct in forging and uttering purported court orders was a deliberate and premeditated attempt to influence people to act (on pain of contempt of court) in a way that suited her.”
Justice McHugh agreed with Justice Adamson, adding only that for a lawyer to forge documents was “extremely serious”.
“Such conduct discloses not only dishonesty but a willingness to manipulate others for a person advantage. But for a lawyer to forge and utter what purported to be court orders is, as Justice Adamson says, egregious,” Justice McHugh said.
“The respondent’s conduct discloses a lack of insight into, and a disregard for, the administration of justice itself. It demands her removal from the roll.”
Gow also held herself out as a practitioner when she did not hold a practising certificate, breached bail conditions in 2021, assaulted a family member in 2023, which resulted in a 12-month community corrections order, and committed driving offences in 2024.
The case: Prothonotary of the Supreme Court of New South Wales v Gow [2025] NSWCA 232.
Naomi Neilson is a senior journalist with a focus on court reporting for Lawyers Weekly.
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