Watchdog action looms for Alistair Wyvill over Stella Maris

THE Territory’s legal watchdog has taken more than three-and-a-half years to decide it would take disciplinary proceedings against former opposition leader Delia Lawrie’s barrister, Alistair Wyvill SC, court records reveal.

The then NT opposition leader Delia Lawrie when she appeared at the Stella Maris inquiry. Picture: Justin Sanson

THE Territory’s legal watchdog has taken more than three-and-a-half years to decide it would take disciplinary proceedings against former opposition leader Delia Lawrie’s barrister, Alistair Wyvill SC, court records reveal.

Ms Lawrie was dumped as opposition leader in 2016 after a ham-fisted attempt to have the Supreme Court quash the Stella Maris Inquiry report, which was critical of her conduct in granting a peppercorn lease of the old Stella Maris site to Unions NT, which her opponents described as a “stinky, dodgy deal”.

Emails discovered during the Supreme Court case revealed Ms Lawrie’s legal team — which included Mr Wyvill and prominent solicitor Cathy Spurr — had hatched a plan to disengage from and then discredit Commissioner John Lawler’s inquiry.

Alistair Wyvill SC speaks to judges at the ceremony for retiring Supreme Court Judge Justice Dean Mildren

The Law Society has ever since refused to comment on the prospect of disciplinary action against Mr Wyvill and Ms Spurr, but a Federal Court decision handed down last week reveals disciplinary proceedings against Mr Wyvill are looming.

Mr Wyvill unsuccessfully took the society to the Federal Court late last year seeking an urgent injunction restraining the society from starting disciplinary proceedings.

The decision reveals previously unknown detail about the scandal, including that Mr Wyvill was provided with an investigator’s report and a memorandum from unnamed “non-conflicted” members of the society’s Ethics Committee in March last year.

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It is unclear why the investigation has been so drawn out, an investigator having been appointed in October 2015 following a series of formal letters from Justice Stephen Southwood’s and then-solicitor-general Michael Grant, who has since become Chief Justice.

In his decision, Justice Robert Bromwich said “nothing happened” until “some time” after a largely unsuccessful appeal of Ms Lawrie’s case was handed down in June 2016.

Justice Bromwich’s decision also reveals current Solicitor-General Sonia Brownwill SC “refused to withdraw” her predecessor’s complaint to the Law Society. If the Law Society hauls Mr Wyvill before its disciplinary tribunal, it must do so by early May.