A lawyer who was admitted in the ACT and formerly practised in the jurisdiction has had his name struck off the roll of legal practitioners after he engaged in a "systemic course of dishonest conduct which involved numerous lies" to a client for nearly six years.
William Frederick Lester was admitted in the territory in 2006 before moving to Launceston in 2011.
Justice Michael Brett of the Tasmanian Supreme Court in September 2021 recommended that the ACT Supreme Court remove Lester from the roll after he admitted to conduct alleged in three complaints by the state's legal profession board.
The first involved Lester engaging in "an ongoing and systemic course of dishonest conduct which involved numerous lies" to a client for years about him starting workers compensation proceedings on her behalf.
This included at least "32 occasions when he made false statements to her as to the status and progress of the claim, when he knew those statements to be false".
He agreed in the same year he arrived in Tasmania to act for the client on a no-win, no-fee basis; however, he did not start proceedings until January 2017. His client discovered his dishonesty nine months later.
Lester's conduct regarding his client included him falsifying documentation intended to support those lies.
He also failed to disclose a relevant disciplinary order made by the ACT Law Society when applying to renew his practising certificate in Tasmania in 2016-17.
The respondent also failed to comply with a requirement imposed on him by an investigator after a member of the public made a complaint about him.
Justice Brett said Lester's client suffered a "gross delay" and found him guilty of professional misconduct for the first and third complaints and unsatisfactory professional conduct for the second.
The judge said the lies were "disturbing for a number of reasons", including them being "well thought out and systematic deceit".
Justice Brett said Lester's conduct also gave his client hope only to have expectations dashed at the last minute.
"This occurred repeatedly. Such conduct was cruel and selfish, and displayed a complete absence of empathy and concern for the client's welfare," he said.
Lester did not offer an explanation for his dishonesty but said he was remorseful and his conduct appalled him.
Justice Brett, however, said Lester did not in evidence sincerely and unreservedly acknowledge he made dishonest decisions and did not provide an honest explanation for why that was so.
"The respondent is not, and will not be for an indefinite time, a fit and proper person to carry on practice as a legal practitioner," the judge said.
"In view of that finding, the only appropriate outcome is that his name be removed from the roll of practitioners.
"Any sanction short of striking off would be inconsistent with this court's duty to maintain proper professional standards."
Because Lester was admitted in the ACT, the appropriate order was to recommend the territory's Supreme Court to remove his name from the roll. The court on Friday ordered that removal.
Justices Michael Elkaim, Chrissa Loukas-Karlsson, and Geoffrey Kennet also ordered Lester pay the costs of the proceedings for the plaintiff, being the ACT Law Society Council, except that each party pay its own costs of the hearing.
The decision to remove a lawyer from the roll needed a full court as stipulated in the Supreme Court Act.
