Wannabe lawyer Jacob Reichman caught out by Instagram

INSTAGRAM hashtags were almost career-ending for an enthusiastic law student who wrongly claimed to be a solicitor in court.

Jacob Reichman appeared in the Brisbane magistrates court on charges of engaging in legal practice when not entitled to Photographer Philip Norrish NO PHOTO CREDIT

INSTAGRAM hashtags were almost career-ending for an enthusiastic second-year law student who wrongly claimed to be a solicitor in court then boasted about his lawyer status on social media.

Jacob Reichman, 22, pleaded guilty in the Brisbane Magistrates Court on Wednesday charged with engaging in legal practice when he wasn’t entitled on six occasions and for wrongly representing himself as being a lawyer.

Magistrate Anne Thacker fined the wannabe lawyer $1000 and ordered he pay further costs to the Legal Services Commission (LSC) of $1083.50.

Prosecutor Sarah Lane, for the LSC, said Reichman made himself out to be a lawyer working at a Gold Coast firm when he fronted three different magistrates in a criminal matter before the Beenleigh Magistrates Court between January and July, 2013.

She said he also sent an email to the registry seeking an adjournment of the case where his signature block wrongly claimed he was a solicitor.

She said Reichman was employed as a legal clerk for barrister Christopher Rosser at the time, not Michelle Porcheron Lawyers as he claimed in court.

Ms Lane said Reichman’s story came undone when Mr Rosser advised Magistrate Trevor Morgan his young protégé was not an Australian legal practitioner but his clerk.

The court was told Magistrate Morgan asked both Mr Rosser and Reichman to front his court the following day, but the young clerk was absent because he was sitting his final law exam.

Magistrate Morgan referred the matter to the commission.

Ms Lane said Reichman’s social media accounts were examined during the investigation, revealing he had posted screen-grabs of himself acting in a legal capacity on Channel 9 News on Facebook and Linked In.

She said the Instagram images posted by Reichman were accompanied with the hashtags: #lawyer, #younglawyer and #criminallawyers.

Barrister Patricia Kirknan-Scroope, for Reichman, said her client was just 20 at the time and had moved up to the Gold Coast from Melbourne to accept a scholarship at Bond University in 2011.

She said he was deeply ashamed and remorseful.

Ms Kirknan-Scroope said Reichman initially undertook work experience with Mr Rosser before he was hired as a legal clerk in 2012.

He said Reichman “aspired” to be like his legal mentor and became “mesmerised” by the thought of owning his own practice one day.

She said he graduated in September and still hoped to work as a lawyer, although he was not yet admitted.

Ms Kirknan-Scroope said Reichman still worked with Mr Rosser.

She said his social media accounts were driven by an intense desire to impress his family in Melbourne.

She said Reichman’s behaviour took place in the context of him failing to take his medication for Attention Deficit Disorder.

Ms Thacker said the legislation was designed to protect members of the public from people who were not qualified to carry out legal work.

“It cannot be that people come in without the proper qualifications and pretend to be something that they are not,” she said.

“I can comprehend that you got swept away in the excitement of commencing what you believed was going to be your career at an earlier point than what you were permitted to do so.”

But she said Reichman was very young and perhaps “mesmerised at the prospect of eagerness to join the legal fraternity”.

She ordered he pay costs and did not record a conviction.