Sydney lawyer who fought vaccine mandates has licence suspended
Sydney solicitor Nathan Buckley has led the charge against vaccine mandates with crowd funded challenges but now he has had his practising licence suspended for his online behaviour.
NSW
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A solicitor who has led multiple crowd-funded challenges to vaccine mandates has had his licence suspended by the NSW Law Society.
Following an investigation into Nathan Buckley’s online behaviour on the Facebook page of his firm G& B Lawyers, which included advising people to act against public health orders, the Council of the Law Society suspended Mr Buckley on the grounds “it reasonably believes he is unable to fulfil the inherent requirements of an Australian legal practitioner”.
Last year, amid the height of the pandemic, Mr Buckley urged Victorians to “engage in civil disobedience” and not wear masks, avoid testing and protest the lockdown.
“Tell Andrews that you refuse to wear a mask. It is time for all Australians to engage in civil disobedience. Leave your homes. Go to work. Earn a living. Feed your families,” read one post.
Mr Buckley, a partner of G&B lawyers, was directed by the NSW Law Society to remove a social media post giving “free legal advice” urging Victorians not to wear the mandated masks and clog the courts to fight fines last year.
More recently Mr Buckley has crowd-funded challenges to vaccine mandates and NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard. They were thrown out of court.
His suspension was confirmed Friday on the Register of Disciplinary Action where the Council of the Law Society said it believed he “did not have the ability to discharge” the “paramount duty to administration of justice” and “duty to be honest and courteous in all dealings in the course of legal practice”.
Mr Buckley was also found guilty of unsatisfactory professional conduct in January 2020 in a matter where he was found to have acted unethically by sending correspondence that was “threatening, abusive and/or discourteous”.
Mr Buckley was reprimanded by the Legal Services Commissioner.
The suspension of his practising certificate will remain in place until June 2022.
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