Inside the drug culture of a leading NSW law firm

A leading NSW law firm had a culture where promotions were given on MDMA benders and cocaine parties were common place.

The morning after going on an MDMA bender with their boss, a junior lawyer from a leading NSW law firm sent the senior legal eagle a text message in a moment of guilt.

“Hey, take some money out of my pay for next week, it just occurred to me how much of your stuff I powered through last night?”, the junior lawyer said in the 2019 message.

The message was part of a text exchange shown as evidence in court during a criminal trial, which cannot legally be identified.

The boss wrote a reply: “Nuh don’t be crazy … but thanks for offering.”

However the junior lawyer wouldn’t let it go and wrote back: “No, no, OOO, I feel bad, it was so much ha ha.”

After their night out, the court was told the boss was more concerned about the firm’s other employees finding out he had awarded the junior lawyer the lead role on a case “whilst we were off our heads”.

The firm’s future is now under a cloud after the boss and several of the firm’s employees were among a group of lawyers referred by the judge hearing the case for investigation by the Office of the Legal Services Commissioner and the NSW Law Society, which have the power to ban the lawyers from practising.

More details have come out about the Sydney law firm which has been referred for investigation.

Lawyers must satisfy a “fit and proper” person test.

The judge referred the lawyers after revelations during the trial of cocaine and MDMA parties within the firm as well as drug supply between colleagues.

The court also heard claims of a blackmail plot where one lawyer was accused of attempting to engineer the sacking of another to take their job, and other scandalous behaviour that cannot legally be revealed.

Details of the debaucherous activities within the firm were revealed in evidence during the recent court case, slapped with a non publication order, banning identification of the lawyers. But that might be about to change.

With the criminal trial over, the judge is now considering legal arguments as to whether the non-publication orders should be removed.

The boss, giving evidence during the trial told the court that prior to his MDMA bender, he had been drinking with the junior lawyer at a Sydney CBD bar. The pair got in a cab and went via the junior lawyer’s home to pick up MDMA, the court heard.

They continued in the taxi to another pub where they took the drug before making a call to have more delivered, which the boss paid for, the court heard.

The court heard that two months later, the boss sent another text message to the junior lawyer.

“Bro, can you help me with some M-M-M for next weekend?,” the text message shown in the trial said.

It was a reference to the boss wanting the junior lawyer to source MDMA for them, the court heard.

The junior lawyer wrote back: “Yeah probably. How much?”

The boss told the court it was a request for two grams of MDMA.

The court heard details about drug use by members of the law firm.

Several days later, the junior lawyer delivered the drug to the street where the boss lived, the court heard.

The court heard the drug use at the firm was not confined to the two lawyers and that other employees at the practice participated in cocaine parties at hotels.

The first occurred in mid 2019 in a hotel in the Sydney CBD, the trial was told. At least four of the firm’s employees were among about 10 people who went to the party after a drinking session at a popular city bar.

The court heard one of the lawyers from the firm did not approve of taking drugs. But one of their friends supplied the others with cocaine for the party, which the boss paid for. The group started snorting the drug with a banknote about 8pm, the court heard.

“I rolled it up and then snorted the cocaine,” the boss told the court.

The party ended when another of the firm’s lawyers – who told the court they had been “drinking beers” since midday – passed out on a bed and the friend, who supplied the cocaine, became aggressive.

“It didn’t feel safe,” the boss lawyer told the court. “And I wanted to get out of that room, they were both very, very drunk.”

Another cocaine party in 2019 was a celebration of one of the firm’s junior lawyers being admitted to practice in the NSW Supreme Court.

The court heard the junior lawyer arranged for the cocaine to be supplied to the party in a CBD hotel room. Attendees were free to consume from a plate of crushed MDMA and a bag of cocaine on another plate.

Two days after the party, the court heard, the boss expressed concern about the firm’s partying ways in a text exchange with a junior lawyer who said: “My body is exhausted”.

“And no more partying together,” the boss wrote in the text message. “I think the lines between work and social life are getting way too blurred, and it‘s going to cause an implosion for everyone, especially me …”

Another lawyer from the firm who gave evidence in the trial said a colleague had used cocaine in the office after celebrating a win in court.

The lawyer told the court that the next day their children – who came to the office while the lawyer conducted a conference with the client – found a cocaine encrusted $20 note in a colleague’s office.

“Then the children basically ran up the hallway, said ‘ … Can we have this, can we have this, can we have this?’,” the lawyer told the court.

“I looked at (the $20 note) and was quite shocked … Like, I knew what it was. It had white powder all over it … so I tasted it, which I recognised it to be a drug, cocaine.

“Then I … rubbed it off on my dress and said, ‘Okay, well, we can get some pizzas for dinner then.’ And I stuck it in my pocket.”

The lawyer told the court they were upset at the discovery but also admitted to taking cocaine at the admission party.

In cross examination one of the lawyers said they were aware lawyers were required too be of good character. The case will return to court at a yet to be determined date where the judge will give his decision on whether the non publication orders will continue or be lifted.

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