Appeal court to hear case of lying lawyer

The Court of Appeal is to determine the future of a Wellington lawyer who lied about his 39 convictions.

The Law Society, which has the power to end his career, went to the High Court with a request to have the case heard in the Appeal Court.

Justice Jill Mallon approved the request, saying the man, whose name is suppressed, must have known he was misleading his employers and the society.

His 39 convictions, which ranged from driving offences to drug possession, were accumulated between 1989 and 1994 and included five months' in prison in 1991, the Dominion Post reported.

After 1994, the man "turned his life around", completed a drug and alcohol treatment programme and two university degrees.

He had a minor run-in with police officers in 2001, for which he was given diversion.

When he applied to join the bar in 2001 he declared his diversion but not his convictions.

He continued to hide his past at meetings with the Law Society and in later justifying his deception, said he assumed his convictions had been "expunged" after so many years.

But Justice Mallon said as a lawyer, the man should have known that convictions carrying custodial sentences do not get removed from a person's record.

When confronted with his police record by the law firm employing him, he initially denied he was the person in question before finally admitting the truth.

The Law Society said the man's continuing deception and his criminal past meant he was not a "fit and proper" person to be practising law.

- NZPA