A Solicitor v The Council of the Law Society of New South Wales

[2004] HCA 1
Judgment date
Case number
S406/2002
Before
Gleeson CJ, McHugh, Gummow, Kirby, Callinan JJ
Catchwords

Legal practitioners – Solicitors – Jurisdiction of the Supreme Court with respect to the discipline of legal practitioners – Declaration of professional misconduct in circumstances where person convicted of sexual offences – Declaration of professional misconduct in circumstances where person failed to disclose fact of conviction of offence but where conviction ultimately set aside on appeal – Duty of candour to professional association – Distinction between professional misconduct and purely personal misconduct – Removal from Roll of Practitioners on basis that person not a fit and proper person to be a legal practitioner – Relevance of rehabilitation and character – Relevance of findings of professional misconduct to question of whether fit and proper person.

Words and phrases – "inherent power or jurisdiction of the Supreme Court with respect to the discipline of legal practitioners", "professional misconduct", "fit and proper person to be a legal practitioner".

Legal Profession Act 1987 (NSW) – ss 127, 171M.

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