Login
Principal fined $7,500 for professional misconduct
A Sydney-based boutique principal has been reprimanded, fined and ordered to undertake a legal ethics course after being found guilty on four grounds of professional misconduct.
Jerome Doraisamy
Dickran Yakenian, who is listed as the principal of Legal Edge Australia (a firm specialising in immigration, criminal family, property and civil law), located in Fairfield, Sydney, was alleged by the New South Wales Legal Services Commissioner to have engaged in professional misconduct in the course of acting for a client bringing proceedings in the District Court against five defendants.
Mr Yakenian admitted all four grounds and, in an Instrument of Consent filed by both parties, he agreed that he had engaged in professional misconduct.
In his affidavit, he wrote that his actions were done on instructions from his client, despite legal advice he and counsel had given. Despite his evidence to the contrary, he wrote, he was still instructed to proceed with applying for a default judgment and filing the bankruptcy application in respect of one of the defendants.
In hindsight, he reflected “it would have been more appropriate if he had told the client that he was no longer prepared to act for them” but accepted that this was not an excuse for his conduct.
The NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal accepted that “some clients can be very demanding and choose to ignore sound advice”, but that acquiescing to the client’s demands in the circumstances of this matter “was completely inappropriate, no matter how overbearing the client”.
“The tribunal also accepts that the impact on a small practice of the potential loss of a significant client could be catastrophic. However, the potential loss of a client does not excuse the solicitor’s conduct. The profession relies on all of its solicitors to act with honesty and candour, and solicitors have a legitimate expectation that they will not be misled by the other solicitors with whom they deal,” it held.
The tribunal further considered the third ground of alleged professional misconduct to be the most serious, as a “solicitor has a fundamental obligation not to mislead the court and the solicitor knew that failing to inform the court of communications between the parties’ solicitors was false or misleading, or alternatively, was recklessly careless as to whether to the statement was false or misleading”.
In determining disciplinary orders, the tribunal observed that “this is not the first time” that Mr Yakenian “has come to attention”, and referenced an alleged caution issued in 2010 for “failure to appear in court on multiple occasions”, as well as a reprimand issued in 2012 “for having hindered and obstructed” a trust account investigator and the supervisor of the trust money for his practice.
Ultimately, Mr Yakenian was reprimanded, fined $7,500, ordered to undergo a legal ethics course and achieve a pass mark, and was ordered to pay costs.
Jerome Doraisamy
Jerome Doraisamy is the editor of Lawyers Weekly and HR Leader. He has worked at Momentum Media as a journalist on Lawyers Weekly since February 2018, and has served as editor since March 2022. In June 2024, he also assumed the editorship of HR Leader. Jerome is also the author of The Wellness Doctrines book series, an admitted solicitor in NSW, and a board director of the Minds Count Foundation.
You can email Jerome at:
