Lawyer Donna Hall accused of misleading clients

Donna Hall. Photo / Greg Bowker

Prominent Te Arawa lawyer Donna Hall will appear before the Lawyers and Conveyancers Disciplinary Tribunal next week.

The case, which has been taken by the Wellington Standards Committee, is set down for a hearing from Monday to Wednesday at the tribunal's office in Wellington.

A charge was laid by a standards committee of the Law Society and alleges Ms Hall, who is married to former High Court judge Sir Eddie Durie, acted for a vendor and a purchaser in a Central North Island land deal without the prior informed consent of either party.

A Maori shareholder from the Tauhara Middle 15 Trust, which bought land from Landcorp for $5 million jointly with another trust in 2007, complained about Ms Hall's conduct on the basis she advised both Tauhara and the Hikuwai Hapu Lands Trust, which facilitated the transaction.

Those actions amount to "negligence or incompetence in her professional capacity ... of such a degree as to reflect on her fitness to practise or as to bring her profession into disrepute", tribunal papers say.

Further, it is alleged Ms Hall failed to advise each party of the areas of conflict or potential conflict, and advise the purchaser and lender that each should take independent advice.

Although the Law Society's standards committee can impose penalties of its own, the tribunal's sanctions for charges brought under the 2006 Lawyers and Conveyancers Act are much harsher and include being struck off the roll, suspension or fines of up to $30,000.

Last year, Ms Hall sought a tribunal order suppressing her name on the grounds that as a well-known lawyer she would suffer "unfair prejudice, beyond that of any other practitioner charged".

However, tribunal chairman Judge Dale Clarkson said Ms Hall failed to persuade the tribunal there were grounds for over-riding the presumption of openness or the expectation for publicity.