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Former Auckland lawyer Mehal Kejriwal, disbarred for fraud, is allegedly providing legal services in Australia.
She uses freelance sites and sells legal advice despite being apparently unregistered in Australia and disbarred in New Zealand.
Kejriwal told the Herald “I never claim I am a current of practicing lawyer but instead specifically say ex-lawyer”
Unregistered legal practice in NSW carries a penalty of 2 years imprisonment.
A disbarred New Zealand lawyer is allegedly working in Australia, providing legal advice and services to people online.
Mejal Kejriwal now describes herself as a lawyer, an ex-lawyer, an HR Manager, and an English tutor on different platforms, often using the pseudonym “Mel A”.
The former Aucklander wasstruck off from practising law after repeatedly swindling client fees during her first year in the profession in 2017.
The misconduct involved three instances of fraud where she replaced bank account numbers on invoices with her own or her friend’s bank account numbers.
Mehal Kejriwal appears to have been taking money in exchange for legal advice in Australia, despite not being a registered lawyer in the country and being barred from practising law in New Zealand. Photo / NZME
The Lawyers and Conveyancers Disciplinary Tribunal held that the repeated and deliberate nature of the offending placed it at the very serious end of misconduct and ordered that Kejriwal be struck off.
Seven years later, Kejriwal is living in Sydney and using freelance job websites to sell legal services, despite not being a registered lawyer in Australia and being disbarred in New Zealand.
Reviews show she has been taking payment from people for immigration, migration, employment, commercial, and health and safety services, as well as contract and trademark legal advice.
However Kejriwal told the Herald “I would really like to emphasise that I am not selling legal services and advice. I am always transparent and never claim that I am a current or practicing lawyer but instead specifically say ‘ex-lawyer’ or ‘have been a lawyer before’”.
A message sent from "Mel A's" Airtasker page warns a user about lawyers without credentials - despite the fact she herself has been disbarred.
Kejriwal has been using the website Airtasker, where users post jobs and workers “bid” for the work.
Airtasker users pay an average of $100-$300 for their jobs to be done, according to the website.
Online messages show Kejriwal has even warned customers about unqualified lawyers while bidding for those jobs herself.
In her self-promotion, she claims to have “assisted many clients with their debt recovery claims with the NSW Claims court,” and “drafted terms and conditions for many organisations”.
Kejriwal does not call herself a lawyer on her public Airtasker profile and in communications with potential clients calls herself an “ex-lawyer”.
On a different task-hire website, Super Prof, Kejriwal calls herself a lawyer – but appears to offer English tutoring support.
Her name is not on the New South Wales registry of barristers or solicitors.
Mehal Kejriwal, using an alias "Mel A", leaves a review for a customer after she helped them with "immigration lawyer advice".
It is an offence for a person who is not a lawyer or incorporated law firm to provide legal services and to describe themselves as a lawyer or related title, according to a statement the New Zealand Law Society provided to the Herald.
“Mehal Kejriwal was struck off the roll of barristers and solicitors and is not a lawyer.
“A ‘lawyer’ is a person who holds a current practising certificate,” the society noted.
Airtasker has a disclaimer that notes that some legal services can only be performed by qualified lawyers and recommends that customers do their own research.
In NSW, unregistered legal practice carries a penalty of two years imprisonment. The penalty for providing unlawful immigration assistance can be up to 10 years imprisonment.
The Law Society of New South Wales refused to comment.
Offending in New Zealand
The New Zealand Law Society’s Auckland Standards Committee found Kejriwal had engaged in “blatant dishonesty” by fraudulently altering invoices so money would be directed to her.
The decision noted Kejriwal had appeared via audiovisual link from Sydney, where she claimed she had not practised law since moving back across the ditch.
Kejriwal had produced two fraudulent fee invoices on November 24 and December 6 2017.
The invoices appeared to be issued by her employer but she had added her bank details in place of the firm’s.
The two invoices were for $925 and $1040.
Mehal Kejriwal describes herself as a lawyer on freelance website Super Prof, despite being disbarred in New Zealand.
In her third instance of dishonesty, beginning December 22, Kejriwal forged an invoice using the letterhead of another firm, but this time the bank account shown for payment of the invoice belonged to one of her friends.
The friend transferred the $129,025 they received into Kejriwal’s bank account. She returned the funds to the client, retaining about $700 for herself.
The total amount gained as a result of what the committee described as “the three fraudulent acts” was $2665.
Kejriwal’s fraudulent conduct would only come to light in 2020, long after she had left New Zealand and moved to Australia, where she grew up.
‘This has been an extravagant learning experience for me’
The 15-page Disciplinary Tribunal decision released in 2022 reveals Kejriwal’s lies, beginning less than a year into her career when she was 25.
When approached about one of the incidents, she told the Standards Committee she felt shock, guilt and remorse.
She said “… I feel like a new and grown person, this has been an extravagant learning experience for me…”
“This was a first-time, one-off, spontaneous offence that will never be repeated, as I have truly learned my lessons and understood the seriousness of the offence.”
Later at the hearing, Kejriwal accepted that this was a lie, because after her comments two further offences were uncovered.
Her explanation for the offending was that she was suffering from a medical problem, which was suppressed, for which she provided a psychiatrist assessment as evidence.
The Standards Committee submitted to the tribunal that there did not appear to be a connection between these difficulties and the nature of the offending.
Kejriwal also claimed she was struggling financially at the time of the offending – but her bank accounts indicated she had a bank balance of $94,000 at the time.
“This was not an instance of a struggling, impoverished lawyer,” the decision said.
Kejriwal’s response
When approached for this story, Kejriwal told the Herald “I would really like to emphasise that I am not selling legal services and advice. I am always transparent and never claim that I am a current or practicing lawyer but instead specifically say ‘ex-lawyer’ or ‘have been a lawyer before’.
“I am upfront about this and provide paralegal, administrative type of assistance such as helping people navigate legal forms, rewriting their statements/forms/documents, lodging their forms to the correct body, navigating online portals, using publicly available templates or helping others populate their own templates, guiding them to relevant online resources or helping them access appropriate bodies who can help them with information such as immigration, tribunals, fair work.
“I have never represented anyone, and only use their current information to reword. I also do not agree that I ‘sell’ legal services, and I even go as far as to sometimes help them with accessing assistance through the community law centre or helping them find an appropriate lawyer in their specific field as I am unable to help.”
Jaime Lyth is a multimedia journalist for the New Zealand Herald, focusing on crime and breaking news. Lyth began working under the NZ Herald masthead in 2021 as a reporter for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei.
