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Since the start of March, the Council of the Law Society and the Bar Association has handed out four reprimands and two suspensions, including to a high-profile criminal lawyer and a solicitor accused of trust account misconduct.
Senior solicitor Leigh Johnson of Leigh Johnson Lawyers was found to not be a “fit and proper person” and had her practising certificate suspended by the NSW Law Society at the end of last month, according to the state’s register of disciplinary action.
Johnson was known for representing Gary Murphy, one of the five men jailed for the brutal 1986 attack and murder of Anita Colby.
In July 2021, Johnson lost an appeal to overturn a finding that she had engaged in “misleading and deceptive conduct” by failing to disclose her involvement with conman Peter Foster in 2012.
Johnson had been offered a spot as a limited partner in Foster’s Sports Trading Club Partnership (STC), which allegedly defrauded over 150 people out of $12.3 million. There was no evidence or criminal charges to suggest Johnson was involved in the fraud.
According to The Daily Telegraph, Johnson entered voluntary bankruptcy on 30 September 2022. Under the Legal Profession Uniform Law, a solicitor must inform the Law Society of their insolvency, or automatic show cause events, within 28 days.
The legal disciplinary register indicated the September 2022 show cause event as the “substance of the conduct matter”.
The Council of the Law Society also suspended Benjamin Paul Reid’s practising certificate for the year ending 30 June 2025, pending its investigation into an allegation of “withdrawal of trust funds without apparent authorisation”. No adverse findings have been recorded.
According to the register, the Law Society claimed it was “necessary in the public interest to immediately suspend” Reid’s certificate.
A number of reprimands were also handed out, including to Ahmed Dib of Dib Partners for failing to comply with court orders requiring him to file an affidavit and attend court. As principal, he was also found to have failed to ensure employed solicitors complied.
In addition to the reprimand, Dib was found to have engaged in unsatisfactory professional conduct, was ordered to undertake and complete further education, and pay a fine of $3,000.
Barrister Stephen Cairns was also found to have engaged in unsatisfactory professional conduct and reprimanded for misleadingly representing to the Bar Association that he had not practised as a barrister in NSW since June 2023.
Damien Allen, another barrister, was reprimanded and found to have engaged in unsatisfactory professional conduct for a failure to tender sufficient evidence during his client’s trial.
Mark Phillip Boys of MPB Lawyers received the same finding for breaching rule 33 of the Australian Solicitors Conduct Rules 2015.
That rule prohibits a solicitor from communicating about the subject of representation with a person the lawyer knows to be represented by another practitioner. According to Tweed Daily News, Boys said he had “made a mistake” and “fell on the sword”.
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Naomi Neilson is a senior journalist with a focus on court reporting for Lawyers Weekly.
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