Sentencing of disgraced barrister fuels regulator warning

Along with solicitor Mark Elliot, now deceased, O’Bryan promised to recoup the funds lost by investors of Banksia Securities when it collapsed in late October 2012 with more than $600 million owing.

After the class action settled in 2017, O’Bryan set a fixed target of 30 per cent of the settlement for himself and the legal team, then began to work backwards by having his assistant fabricate invoices.

He was originally set to receive more than $1 million but ended up claiming a final figure of $2.35 million, plus GST. Due to his poor record keeping, it is impossible to know the exact value of the fees.

Keith Pitman, a 90-year-old victim of O’Bryan, told the County Court the offending put a “dark shadow” on his retirement and labelled his former barrister’s conduct a “slow-motion robbery”.

O’Bryan avoided a prison sentence but was ordered to complete 600 hours of community service over the next four years.

Judge Fran Dalziel said it was “not a subtle crossing of the line”.

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“The dishonesty was blatant and would have been obvious to O’Bryan as he carried it out. He breached the trust of his clients and failed to act with the integrity required of lawyers in general and senior counsel in particular,” Judge Dalziel added.

Although he acknowledged O’Bryan never received the funds he claimed, Judge Dalziel said he still “must be punished”.

In a statement, Victorian Legal Services Board (VLSB) CEO and commissioner Fiona McLeay said that when lawyers abuse the trust they hold, “it affects not just individual clients, but the standing of the profession and confidence in the justice system itself”.

“As the regulator for lawyers in Victoria, we can’t overstate how fundamental honesty is to legal practice.

“Dishonesty strikes at the core of professional trust, and our approach is clear: where dishonesty is found, it goes directly to whether a person is fit and proper to practise law,” McLeay added.

The County Court heard O’Bryan provided false documents to a costs consultant in order to have his report inaccurately represent the costs had been calculated in accordance with a costs agreement.

In reality, O’Bryan never entered a costs agreement or issued invoices to his client or the legal team that retained him.

He has provided no explanation or excuse for the offending.

O’Bryan’s father and grandfather were both Supreme Court judges, and his brother, Justice Michael O’Bryan, was made a Federal Court judge in 2019. Justice O’Bryan recently handed down a landmark decision in the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) case against supermarket giant Coles.

Since the offending, O’Bryan has declared bankruptcy and returned his Order of Australia medal.

He was also struck from the roll of both the Victorian and South Australian supreme courts and condemned by Justice John Dixon as the “mastermind [of a] dishonest and fraudulent scheme”.

“Most lawyers act with integrity every day. That is precisely why serious misconduct must be addressed firmly – to protect the public and to preserve confidence in the profession,” McLeay said.

“Professional standards matter because they underpin public trust.

“Every lawyer, regardless of seniority or status, share[s] responsibility for upholding them.”

Citation: DPP v O’Bryan [2026] VCC 587 (14 May 2026).