Melbourne lawyer Elisa Berry’s conduct ‘a stain’ on the profession: judge

A family lawyer who repeatedly forged her clients’ signatures, lied to one of them when claiming their child had been kidnapped, and misused trust funds has been struck off.

A Melbourne family lawyer has been struck off.

A Melbourne family lawyer who repeatedly forged her clients’ signatures, lied to one of them when claiming their child had been kidnapped, and misused trust funds has been struck off, with a judge labelling her conduct a “stain” on the legal profession.

Elisa Berry was slammed by Victorian Supreme Court judge Stephen O’Meara last week for her “deeply unsettling” behaviour in which she impersonated multiple people, created false and forged documents, and took out a loan in a client’s name – putting up his house as security – without his knowledge.

In light of the “serious and alarming” behaviour, Berry has been deemed “not a fit and proper person” to be a lawyer and is no longer allowed to practise.

Court documents revealing the extent of her misconduct show that in early 2021 she set up a fake email account in the name of a client she was assisting in a property dispute, and put it on his file so invoices would be sent to that address.

The client did not receive the invoices, and they were not paid.

Berry subsequently impersonated the client and applied for a legal finance loan under the fake email address and her own phone number. She used her client’s ID and personal finance information, and signed the loan contract under his name.

She then authorised the lender to use the client’s marital home – which was at the centre of the property dispute – as security for the loan, and instructed the lender to divert funds from the loan into a trust account to pay off unpaid legal bills.

When months later the client became aware of the loan, Berry did not disclose that she had taken it out in his name.

Instead, she drafted emails and letters for him to send covering up her actions.

In a separate matter, she forged a client’s signature on a proposed financial settlement of which he had no knowledge.

She applied for the Federal Circuit and Family Court to enforce the proposed settlement, and attended the hearing without her client’s knowledge. At the hearing, she acted as if she was being instructed by her client, but was not. At one point, she said her client “agreed he had failed to comply” with aspects of the orders, causing the court to make further orders against him.

After the client dropped her and hired a new lawyer, Berry falsely claimed she was representing him and demanded money be paid into her firm’s trust account.

In January 2022, she set up another fake email address for her former client, and again impersonated the client to take out a legal finance loan. She tried to put the client’s house up as a caveat but could not do so without the wife’s lawyer’s permission.

“Ms Berry forged an email chain between herself and (the wife’s) solicitor in which she purported to record such consent and she then gave the forged email chain to the lender,” the judgment reads.

Victorian Supreme Court judge Stephen O'Meara.

The loan money was redirected into her firm’s trust account and used for another client’s property purchase.

In a third matter, Berry forged five different sets of orders and three email chains from the court and provided them to her client. She also forged an email from her opponent to the court in which her opponent seemed to take issue with certain orders, and then gave the forged email to her client.

Berry falsely advised her client that an agreement had been reached for a change in custody of their children.

However, on three occasions when the client went to pick up his children for where he understood to be an agreed location, they were nowhere to be seen.

“Ms Berry falsely advised her client that his ex-partner had kidnapped their children and absconded with them, or was otherwise preventing him from seeing them,” the judgment reads.

“In that regard, Ms Berry falsely advised her client that it was necessary for him to seek a recovery order in order to obtain custody of his children, and there­after falsely advised him that she had filed such an application and that the order had been made.”

Justice O’Meara described Berry’s actions as “utterly ­baffling”. “Ms Berry’s conduct is, however, undeniably tragic, particularly for her clients and those involved in the affected matters,” he said.

“The extensive nature of the conduct is … a stain that the entire profession must wear, as it necessarily strikes at the heart of the trust ordinary members of the community daily, readily and very often unquestioningly, place in their legal advisers.”

He made orders striking Berry’s name from the roll of practitioners.