Fair Work VP in face-off over David Rofe’s $30m fortune

Michael Lawler and Nick Illek are due to face off about the affairs of David Rofe QC, a rich Sydney barrister with advanced dementia.

Fair Work v-president and Kathy Jackson's partner Michael Lawler in Sydney.

On one side will be Michael Lawler, the Fair Work Commission vice-president engulfed in controversy after taking large amounts of paid sick leave, much of it spent helping his disgraced partner Kathy Jackson.

On the other side will be Nick Illek, who describes himself as an “accountant, estate executor and end-of-life specialist”, even if he lacks qualifications for some of these titles.

Mr Lawler and Mr Illek are due to face off about the affairs of David Rofe QC, a Sydney barrister with advanced dementia and a $30 million fortune. This could mean Mr Lawler taking more time away from his office work to deal with Rofe business — a long-term personal interest when he has not been dealing with Ms Jackson’s woes that resulted in the Federal Court last month ordering her to repay $1.4m stolen from the Health Services Union.

The face-off raises questions about a possible clash of interests for Mr Lawler, who was scheduled to conduct an unfair dismissal hearing in Fair Work Court 15 today.

Mr Illek claims to be a friend of Mr Rofe, and supports estranged Rofe friend Nick Llewellyn, an unemployed solicitor who claims to have been a “virtual son, dependent and close friend” of Mr Rofe for more than a decade. Mr Illek backs Mr Llewellyn in his battle to see Mr Rofe after being told he cannot visit the 83-year-old barrister at his home in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, where he needs full-time nursing care.

A fierce battle for control of Mr Rofe’s fortune has raged for several years among warring parties: Mr Lawler, Ms Jackson, Mr Llewellyn, Mr Illek and a group of old Rofe friends who are deeply worried about how the saga has unfolded as Mr Rofe’s health has deteriorated.

From June 2013 until August last year, Mr Lawler played an important role in Mr Rofe’s life, helping with his finances. Since then he has maintained a role behind the scenes, visiting Mr Rofe at his home, often in the company of Ms Jackson, and liaising with those who continue helping with Mr Rofe’s affairs.

At the start of his involvement, Mr Lawler was very much onside with Mr Llewellyn, and Mr Illek.

In June 2013, Mr Lawler had a power of attorney for Mr Rofe, and he put in place financial arrangements granting regular monthly $10,000 payments of Rofe funds to Mr Llewellyn; using $150,000 of Rofe funds to wipe out Mr Llewellyn’s credit card debts; and spending up to $1.45m of Mr Rofe’s funds to assist Mr Llewellyn in buying a residence. These arrangements formalised what had been an ad hoc system of Mr Rofe picking up Mr Llewellyn’s bills over the years.

Mr Lawler and Mr Llewellyn soon fell out. Their wrangling reached its nadir in June last year when Mr Llewellyn learned — in the same month that Mr Lawler used $1.2m of Mr Rofe’s money to buy a Gold Coast apartment as a residence for Mr Llewellyn — that Mr Lawler had used $1.35m of Mr Rofe’s funds to buy a house for Mr Rofe at Wombarra, south of Sydney, which happened to be next door to the house owned by Mr Lawler and Ms Jackson.

Mr Llewellyn reacted by trying to stop Mr Lawler from having a further role in helping Mr Rofe. This led to Mr Lawler ceasing such a role in August last year.

Mr Llewellyn also persuaded Mr Rofe to sign a codicil to his latest in a long line of wills that, temporarily at least, shut Ms Jackson out of a $3m inheritance when Mr Rofe died.