KEY POINTS:
Christopher Harder says he will seek a career outside the legal profession after he withdrew his bid yesterday to be reinstated as a lawyer.
Mr Harder, who was struck off two years ago, was set to have his application to be readmitted to the legal roll heard by the Law Practitioners' Disciplinary Tribunal this week. But after losing several rulings over the past two days over how many witnesses could give evidence against him, Mr Harder sought leave to withdraw his application. The five-person tribunal granted the application, meaning the hearing into his bid to return to the bar never actually began.
Mr Harder said after the hearing that he realised yesterday it was too soon to be applying for reinstatement.
"There's life outside the law," he said. "There are other areas where my skills will be useful and I'll be pursuing some of those."
Mr Harder was struck off in 2006 after admitting some of the allegations against him part-way through a hearing into his position as a lawyer. This meant other complaints against him were not proceeded with, and his lawyer Colin Pidgeon argued on Monday that these complaints should not be admissible as evidence.
But the tribunal agreed with the Auckland District Law Society and New Zealand Law Society, which were opposing Mr Harder's readmission.
Their lawyers said the tribunal needed to have all evidence relating to Mr Harder's previous conduct before it so it could decide whether he had reformed his character to the required standard.
Mr Pidgeon's application for interim relief following the tribunal's decision was declined by Justice Geoffrey Venning at the High Court in Auckland on Tuesday.
Mr Harder and lawyers for the law societies met when the hearing was due to start, and he sought leave to withdraw his application on his return. After withdrawing his application, Mr Harder apologised on several occasions for behaviour over his career that he said was clearly inappropriate.
He noted that he had been brought before the tribunal on several occasions and said he often had nightmares about having to go before it again.
Mr Harder spoke of his descent into drug-taking and alcoholism and said he had now rid himself of both addictions and had lost 28kg since he was struck off.
He apologised to individuals he acted inappropriately to and thanked several people for their support, especially his friends, family and his former colleague Melanie Coxon, who had worked for him in the 1990s.
The tribunal ruled against applications for costs made by the law societies against Mr Harder, who received legal aid for his application.
The tribunal did however note that both societies incurred costs in excess of $100,000 in their oppositions to Mr Harder's application.
- NZPA
