Campbell Newman warned of ‘dark side’ lawyers

FORMER premier Campbell Newman has revealed a warning he was given four years ago about lawyers who had “gone to the dark side”.

Former premier Campbell Newman claims the law society failed to act.

CAMPBELL Newman has revealed he was warned by law-enforcement officials in 2014 there may be lawyers who had “gone to the dark side” and were involved in criminal organisations.

Speaking exclusively to The Courier-Mail, the former premier said he warned the Queensland Law Society of problems with the legal profession during his final year in government – but they failed to act.

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He said his Cabinet was told during briefings by police and corruption watchdog officials that some members of the legal profession may have crossed the line and were “basically doing more than just representing clients”.

“These were lawyers, they were officers of the court, who had allegedly gone to the dark side,” Mr Newman said.

“That was intelligence that came out of those briefings.”

He stressed his comments were not related to any specific person who had been arrested, and that they related to matters of public policy.

Mr Newman said he raised problems about the legal profession with the then president of the QLS and urged the body to adopt a strong degree of self-regulation.

“Certainly (QLS) didn’t do anything,” he said.

“My complaint with (QLS) is they don’t want to see that there are issues that they need to sort out.

“They don’t want to sort out their own bad apples.

“They don’t want to be part of a debate to make the legal system work better, to have more timely and affordable justice for Queenslanders.

“So once again, yes, I’m pointing out that they need to clean up their house.”

QLS president Ken Taylor said the society had a long tradition of working closely with the government, justice system and police.

“QLS has always worked closely with the government of the day – regardless of political party – on diverse topics, including the maintaining of particularly high professional and ethical standards within the legal profession,” he said.

Mr Taylor said the QLS took precautionary measures by providing education, guidance and resources to all practitioners on their ethical obligations and duties to the court.

Evidence before action

THE peak body representing the state’s lawyers has asked the corruption watchdog to “share” evidence against four criminal lawyers accused of ripping off Legal Aid, to help them decide if the men should be reprimanded.

In a letter to the Crime and Corruption Commission chairman, Queensland Law Society president Ken Taylor said details of the allegations of misconduct by lawyers were needed before the society could “take action” for misconduct.

Six men, including four lawyers, have been charged with 12 offences related to Legal Aid fraud and money laundering.

Mr Taylor said yesterday an allegation was not grounds for it to take “any action other than co-operation with the justice system”.

“Only authorities with sufficient resources and power to successfully investigate and prosecute this conduct such as the Queensland Police Service, the CCC and Legal Services Commission can take action at this point in time.”

In a letter to Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath, Mr Taylor said that he had asked to meet with the chief executive of Legal Aid Queensland and the Acting Legal Services Commissioner about “the role of preferred suppliers” to Legal Aid.