A Sydney solicitor was reprimanded and fined for sending a letter designed to “embarrass or frustrate” the recipient.
The Council of the Law Society of NSW has reprimanded and handed a $2,000 fine to Barry John Mullan, a solicitor with GFM Law, for breaching the Australian Solicitors’ Conduct Rules 2015.
According to the Office of the Legal Services Commissioner’s (OLSC) register of disciplinary action, Mullan sent a letter “which used tactics that went beyond legitimate advocacy”.
The letter was “primarily designed to embarrass or frustrate another person”, the register added.
It was found to be unsatisfactory professional conduct.
Mullan was also ordered to undertake and complete further ethics education and provide an apology.
Also disciplined was Jeffrey Kin Shing Wong, a solicitor with Brighton Lawyers, for engaging in conflicts of interest from around May 2018 to May 2020 when advising the complainant on two loans amounting to $900,000.
Wong had a conflict of interest and did not exercise the degree of diligence expected of a reasonably competent solicitor when advising the complainant to structure the May 2018 loans across two loans.
He also engaged in a conflict of interest by taking into account the interests of others at the expense of the complainant’s best interests.
For a finding of unsatisfactory professional conduct, Wong was reprimanded and ordered to undertake further legal education.
Ren Zhou, a solicitor with Ren Zhou Lawyers, was also found to have engaged in unsatisfactory professional conduct.
As a principal of a law practice, Zhou caused a deficiency in the trust account by withdrawing trust money for payment of legal costs without complying with legislative requirements.
Zhou also mixed trust money with other money and failed to adequately supervise an employed solicitor.
This was in addition to a failure to comply with legislative requirements in the handling of a client’s matter, namely non-compliant tax invoices and a failure to keep separate trust ledger accounts.
Zhou was reprimanded, fined $2,000, and ordered to satisfactorily complete a practice management course.
Naomi Neilson is a senior journalist with a focus on court reporting for Lawyers Weekly.
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