Brisbane divorce lawyer reprimanded over ‘offensive’ DV comments

A Brisbane divorce lawyer engaged in unsatisfactory professional conduct while representing a man facing a domestic violence protection order, the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal has found.

The lawyer, Mills John Kirin, has been ordered to pay a $2000 penalty, undertake specialist domestic violence training and pay the costs of the Legal Services Commissioner who took action against him.

The tribunal heard Kirin, 51, emailed the opposing lawyer as the case unfolded in 2022, using unsubstantiated and unprofessional language that described her client as “postnatally depressed” and “mentally ill” and suggested she was “wandering the earth” with his client’s daughter.

Brisbane divorce lawyer Mills John Kirin in a promotional video on his website.

He accused the lawyer of putting forward “blatant lies” and acting in an “overzealous” manner to run a “legally aid (sic) funded crusade” against his client.

“The DV your so-called aggrieved alleges is at the low scale of what we see every day,” he wrote to the other lawyer, in what the tribunal found was part of a broader pattern of bullying.

Tribunal member Duncan McMeekin KC found Kirin’s “complete lack of prior experience in cases of allegations of domestic and family violence in this area of practice was admitted and evidently contributed to his insight into his discourteous, offensive and thoughtless comments”.

In a YouTube video available on his website, Kirin talks about his corporate law background and why he had decided to become a divorce lawyer.

“I had a fairly difficult divorce and I lost my wife, my house, my dog, everything I had worked to build,” Kirin says in the video, where he describes himself as supportive, helpful and “a bit of a bulldog”.

Commissioner Megan Mahon told the tribunal inappropriate behaviour by lawyers in sensitive domestic and family violence cases was a growing problem in Queensland.

Mahon had called for Kirin’s behaviour to be deemed professional misconduct, warranting a $10,000 fine, to help send a message to other lawyers about “the community’s expectations of legal practitioners who act in such matters”.

McMeekin found the case had to be judged on its merits, noting that the public reprimand alone was “a significant sanction involving public shame and the probable impact on the practitioner’s future practice”.

In the commission’s annual report, tabled in parliament this week, Mahon raised concern over a backlog of tribunal cases delaying disciplinary action against lawyers and barristers.

The number of complaints against members of the legal profession surged from 202 in 2022-23 to 345 last year, when five times as many cases were referred to QCAT.

Allegations of poor-quality service, ethical issues and overcharging topped the list.

Mahon suggested the commission be empowered to deal with some of those cases itself, saying “there are many significant and competing demands on the tribunal that is leading to the increasing backlog of matters and other solutions need to be considered to maintain effective regulation”.

She also called for a crackdown on lawyers advertising for personal injuries claims, saying the “significant growth” in ads suggested there were not only loopholes in the regulatory restrictions but also breaches going unpunished.

“The commission’s long-term educative approach to ensuring compliance with the restrictions has run its course and it appears that it is now necessary to take a more formal regulatory approach,” Mahon said.

Mahon said a crackdown would better protect Queenslanders and ensure “the continued viability of compensation schemes”.

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