MinterEllison CEO Annette Kimmitt leaves after Christian Porter memo

Legal firm MinsterEllison’s CEO has left over comments she made about Christian Porter in a staff email, while a WA legal board is attempting to ban the Attorney-General from practising law.

The chief executive of the country’s biggest law firm has left over an email she sent to all staff telling them that she was “hurt” the firm had represented Attorney-General Christian Porter over historic rape claims.

Annette Kimmitt told all 2000 staff at MinterEllison that she had only learned through social media that one of their top defamation partners had advised Mr Porter.

MinsterEllison CEO and managing partner Annette Kimmitt. Picture: David Geraghty / The Australian

“I know that for many it may be a tough day, and I want to apologise for the pain you may be experiencing,” she said in the “confidential” email on March 3, the day Mr Porter outed himself as the cabinet minister at the centre of the allegations, which he has vehemently denied.

The email leaked within minutes and led to a week of internal conflict at the legal giant.

On Wednesday Ms Kimmitt, 55, who was only halfway through a five-year contract, parted company with MinterEllison as the company moved to protect the lucrative multimillion-dollar work its lawyers do for the Federal Government.

They are the government’s biggest outside legal adviser and have counted Crown casino among its clients.

In its 2019 annual report, it said the firm had represented 72 per cent of ASX50 companies.

Before he spoke publicly, Mr Porter had been advised by the law firm’s longest serving lawyer, Peter Bartlett, a stalwart of MinterEllison who has twice been the company’s chairman.

On Wednesday the office of the current chairman, David O’Brien, said there would be no comment about Ms Kimmitt.

In her email that divided the firm, she questioned their representation of Mr Porter, writing that “acceptance of this matter did not go through the firm’s due consultation or approval processes” and had it done so, “we would have considered the matter through the lens of our purpose and our values”.

Mr Bartlett replied with his own email to the 270-odd partners.

“I have advised many federal and state ministers, premiers and prime ministers from both parties. This week I received a call from the PM’s office thanking me for trying to assist the AG,” Mr Bartlett said in the email.

“With the claims against the AG, I would have thought that a majority of our partners would believe that everyone is entitled to a presumption of innocence and legal representation.”

Ms Kimmitt joined MinterEllison in 2018 from Ernst & Young where she was their Melbourne managing partner. She has an accounting and not a legal background and has been a strong advocate for women.

She has said that one of the first things she did at the law firm was to close the gender pay gap for like-for-like jobs. She is an ambassador for the federal government’s Workplace Gender Equality Agency.

Mr Porter has vehemently denied the 33-year-old claims of rape and NSW Police said there is no evidence. The woman involved killed herself.

‘Witch hunt’: Lawyers slam move to disbar Porter

An attempt by a group of law professors to have Attorney-General Christian Porter’s license to practice law revoked is likely to fail and risks looking like a “witch hunt”, according to legal experts.

On Wednesday morning ABC Melbourne’s Virginia Trioli reported that a group of what were described as “high profile academics” was preparing to ask that WA’s Legal Practice Board strip Mr Porter of his practising certificate and declare him not a “fit and proper person” to practice law.

Experts, however, threw cold water on the move, saying that It would likely be seen as politically motivated and have to clear a very high burden of proof.

A West Australian legal body is trying to disbar Attorney-General Christian Porter after an historical rape allegation was made against him. Picture: Paul Kane/Getty Images

“This is a very disturbing development — this is an instance of a witch hunt,” said Prof Augusto Zimmermann, Head of Law at Perth’s Sheridan Institute of Higher Education and president of the Western Australian Legal Theory Association.

“What’s happening in this case is that the onus of proof has been perverted. If this investigation is going to be conducted we have to be careful to preserve the natural justice and due process of law,” he said.

The website of the Board says that it has the power to investigate “complaints and other conduct concerns in respect of legal practitioners.”

Although not a constitutional requirement, every Australian attorney general has been a practising lawyer, with a background either as a lawyer or barrister.

Mr Porter has denied the allegation. Picture: Sharon Smith / NCA NewsWire

Practising lawyers, too, were sceptical of the idea that the Board should be asked to take away Mr Porter’s license to practice.

One Perth lawyer, who asked not to be named because of his firm’s policy on speaking to the media, said it’s “hard to see how they will strike him off on this as they will (likely) fail on onus of proof.

Even if it succeeded, he said, it would be entirely symbolic, “like Arkansas disbarring Bill Clinton” over the Monica Lewinsky incident.

The news comes as Labor sources indicated that a coronial inquest into the circumstances surrounding the death of the woman at the centre of a historical rape allegation will not be enough to quell the firestorm, with the opposition firmly of the belief that only an inquiry into whether Mr Porter is a “fit and proper” person to hold office can settle the matter.