Veteran solicitor struck off over supervision blunders

There were nine charges brought against Palermo, including a failure to maintain his general trust account and causing a deficiency to the trust account between November 2018 and March 2020.

According to Justice Alan Wilson’s decision, these charges stemmed from Palermo leaving responsibility of the trust accounting to a non-lawyer and a failure to supervise or oversee their control.

“It is well established that the scrupulous preservation of money held in trust in accordance with the legislative requirements is a central obligation of a solicitor,” Justice Wilson said in his written reasons.

“It is an obligation that cannot wholly be delegated.”

By declaring to the Queensland Law Society that there was “no difference” between the reconciled statement balance, cash book balance and trust ledger accounts, Palermo provided false or misleading information.

Further, there were two separate instances in which an employee accepted instructions from two parties in the same transaction.

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Justice Wilson said it fell to Palermo to ensure robust conflict mechanisms were in place to identify possible conflicts of interest and provide full disclosure to the impacted clients.

“The necessity for clients to be able to rely on the undivided loyalty for their solicitors is not the only reason acting for clients with conflicting interest is proscribed.

“The public interest is also served by courts and judiciary being able to rely on the ability of lawyers to present their clients’ case unclouded by other concerns,” Justice Wilson said.

Between April 2019 and March 2020, Palermo also failed to pay $47,763.13 in employee superannuation entitlements.

While Palermo admitted to professional misconduct and accepted his name should be removed more than a year before proceedings were ever commenced, he disputed having to pay costs.

In submissions, Palermo said his early cooperation and his volunteering to end his legal career should be considered exceptional circumstances.

However, Justice Wilson was not satisfied that this was the case, particularly because Palermo had already benefited from lesser costs by way of his early cooperation.

“As to the respondent’s early cooperation, undoubtedly, such cooperation has limited the cost incurred by the LSC in contrast to a fully contested matter. That is, ultimately, a practical benefit to the respondent,” Justice Wilson said.

The case: Legal Services Commissioner v Palermo [2026] QCAT 40.