Disgraced Brisbane lawyer declared permanently unfit to practise

The long legal career of a disgraced former criminal defence firm partner who appeared drunk in court, then lied to a judge to try to cover it up, is over.

Neil Lawler outside the Brisbane Supreme Court in November 2024. Picture: John Gass.

The long legal career of a disgraced former criminal defence firm partner and ex-cop who appeared drunk in court and blew more than five times the legal limit, then lied to a judge to try to cover it up, is over.

Neil Lawler, a former partner of embattled criminal defence firm Lawler Magill who more recently has been working in a laundry, has been declared permanently unfit to practise and his name will be struck off the roll of solicitors, the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT) ruled on July 10.

QCAT member Duncan McMeekin, a retired Supreme Court judge, and one of three members who decided Lawler’s fate, ruled that Lawler’s actions were “disgraceful and involved a substantial departure from the standard expected of members of an honourable profession” and based on “compelling” evidence by the legal watchdog.

“There is no reason to think that he is likely to become a person who is fit to be a legal practitioner,” the decision states.

“He has lost his career, his firm, and his reputation,” it says.

The tribunal also accepted that he had suffered public shaming and humiliation from the disciplinary action and media coverage.

Neil Lawler’s legal career is over.

Lawler, an alcoholic who has been a lawyer since 1998, admitted that when he was “grossly intoxicated” while representing a client in a criminal case in Maroochydore Magistrates Court on 29 January 2020 this was professional misconduct.

“He was observed to be red and flushed, unsteady on his feet, and there was the smell of liquor in the courtroom,” the decision states.

Minutes later after he left court, he was caught behind the wheel of his parked car outside the court with a blood-alcohol reading of 0.27 per cent – more than five times the legal limit.

He later pleaded guilty to being in charge of a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol and was sentenced to 12 months’ probation and 100 hours of community service.

“It hardly needs to be said that for a legal practitioner to attend court intending to represent a client when grossly intoxicated justifies a finding that the practitioner is not a fit and proper person to engage in legal practice,” the decision states.

But Lawler – who was a legal director of Bell Miller Pty Ltd, trading as Lawler Magill Lawyers – was also found to have mislead the Magistrates Court about his movements on January 29 “in what is a blatant attempt to minimise the seriousness of his conduct”.

At his sentence for being in charge of a vehicle while under the influence before Chief Magistrate Terry Gardiner on 5 March 2020, Lawler represented himself and was found to have misled the court by falsely claiming he had bought alcohol after leaving the courthouse in January 2020, and then drunk it.

He misled the court at his sentencing by claiming he only returned to his car to charge his phone and had no intention of driving his vehicle; and he was intending to stay the night in Maroochydore.

Mr McMeekin ruled that Lawler’s misleading of the court in March 2020 about his drunk state in court on January 29 “violated the standard of professional conduct observed or approved by members of the profession of good repute and competency”.

Lawler has still not asked for his criminal conviction to be reopened so he can tell Chief Magistrate Terry Gardiner the truth of what he did on January 29, and he remains sentenced on a “false basis”, Mr McMeekin noted.

During the QCAT hearing in November – which was also presided over by University of Queensland academic Julian Lamont and lawyer Richard Barnes – Rachael Taylor, counsel for the state’s Legal Services Commissioner, submitted that the mobile breathalysing unit was called to test Lawler on January 29 after the police prosecutor at Maroochydore Magistrates Court saw how drunk Lawler was in court.

Lawler was working in a laundry last year but the hearing was told he was unemployed and receiving Centrelink payments.

His practising certificate was cancelled by the Queensland Law Society from 27 November 2020.