By IRENE CHAPPLE
A confidential letter to Auckland District Law Society members says Paul Carran, the former Russell McVeagh partner implicated in the bloodstock scandal, has removed himself from the roll of lawyers.
The Law Society had applied to have Carran struck off the roll, but that application was now unnecessary.
The letter, dated December 18, said the Law Society now felt its "requirements and obligations under the [Law Practitioners] Act to both the public and the profession have been met and discharged".
Society president Raynor Asher QC, signatory to the letter, said there were now no outstanding legal issues between Russell McVeagh and the society.
The letter appears to put an end to a six-year investigation into Russell McVeagh's involvement in failed bloodstock investments.
It says the society, after investigating complaints over Carran's conduct, applied to have his name struck off the roll.
Carran opposed the application and denied allegations of wrongdoing.
He later resigned from the society and has not practised for more than four years, according to the letter, and does not intend to in the future.
Carran has now requested his name be removed from the roll and has given a written undertaking to the society that he will not seek its restoration.
In 1987, Carran promoted three bloodstock investment partnerships, all of which failed. This led in 1996 to out-of-court payouts, believed to have totalled up to $20 million, by the firm's partners to some of the more than 300 investors.
The society set up a complaints committee in November 1996 to investigate complaints against Russell McVeagh and its partners over the bloodstock investments.
However, after six years of litigation - which went to the Privy Council - and $1.5 million in costs, the case was dropped in July.
It was understood to have been scuttled by a ruling from the Privy Council that documents provided by Russell McVeagh to investigate the Carran complaints were privileged.
The society used the documents to investigate the behaviour of other partners, but the Privy Council ruled that was a breach of privilege.
Asher said there were no ongoing legal ends to tie up with the Russell McVeagh case.
Lawyers bury the hatchet on bloodstock complaints
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