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Struck-off lawyer who lied about kidnapped children a ‘stain’ on profession
A Victorian family lawyer was struck off for what may be some of the most shocking acts of deception, which escalated from forging signatures to lying about children being kidnapped.
Naomi Neilson
The gross misconduct of Elisa Kate Berry between 2017 and 2022 had “so seriously abused and betrayed the public trust reposed in her”, Justice Stephen O’Meara said in his decision to have her struck off the Victorian Supreme Court’s roll of legal practitioners.
Justice O’Meara said the conduct was “undeniably tragic”, particularly for the clients and others who were caught in the middle.
“The extensive nature of the conduct is, also, a stain that the entire profession must wear, as it necessarily strikes at the heart of the trust which ordinary members of the community daily, readily and very often unquestioningly, place in their legal advisors,” he added.
Starting at her first law firm, Berry forged not only the signature of her client but also the signatures of two transferees in transfer of land documents. She then lodged those with Land Use Victoria.
After moving to a second firm, Berry escalated her deception by creating a forged letter that purported to state a client’s ex-wife had agreed to a particular proposed financial agreement.
In respect of another client, Berry told him his legal fees would be capped without authorisation and forged the statements of account.
The latter client followed Berry to her third law firm, where she then set up a false email address to have the invoices sent to, leaving her unsuspecting client to eventually fall into overdue.
This seemed to only spur Berry on, as she then impersonated him in a legal finance loan – using his personal and financial information – and authorised a lender to lodge a caveat over his matrimonial home.
When the client became aware of the caveat, Berry did not take this opportunity to come clean; instead, she advised him to send an email to the lender and mortgage broker. She drafted, but never sent, both.
After the settlement of the sale of the matrimonial home, Berry caused substantial payments to be made to the lender and the second law firm without the client’s consent. To do so, she forged emails to give the impression the client had approved the payments.
Later, in October 2021, Berry was instructed to file an initiating application for the last client, but she did not do so until January 2022.
Despite this, Berry told the client the proceedings were on foot and forged five sets of orders, variously purporting to either be from the Federal Court or the Federal Circuit and Family Court. On three occasions, she also forged email chains to support her deception.
Sometime between January and February 2022, Berry told the client an agreement had been reached for a change in his children’s custody, leading him to attend to a location on three occasions to supposedly collect children that were never there.
In the next few months, Berry advised the client his ex-partner had kidnapped the children or was preventing him from seeing them.
Berry then created a forged recovery order to obtain custody.
During this same period, Berry told the client an alert had been issued for the missing children, a warrant had been issued for his ex-partner, claimed police had taken steps to locate her, and advised him she had provided a statement to officers.
In the context of the latter, Berry also fabricated emails that were purportedly sent to the school and childcare centre his children attended, failed to follow her client’s instructions, repeatedly lied to him, and caused bills to be drawn for work that was never done.
Despite her employment with this third firm coming to an end in April 2022, Berry continued to engage in legal practice.
In his written reasons, Justice O’Meara said these examples were just part of Berry’s deception and it spread to “some 13 matters”.
Justice O’Meara said the conduct “carries the appearance of calculation” and had targeted clients who were “of an especially unsophisticated and therefore vulnerable kind”.
While Berry admitted the conduct and consented to the strike-off application, Justice O’Meara said there was no clear admission that she benefited in any “distinctly material or other way”.
There was also no “discernible explanation” about the misconduct.
“In that regard, the circumstances are, in some ways, as deeply unsettling as they are utterly baffling,” Justice O’Meara said.
The case is Victorian Legal Services Board v Berry [2024] VSC 778 (17 December 2024).
Naomi Neilson
Naomi Neilson is a senior journalist with a focus on court reporting for Lawyers Weekly.
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