Lawyers’ messages of hate exposed

A slew of horrifying anti-Semitic slurs and bizarre conspiracy theories exchanged between two senior lawyers as they plot to leave a prominent Sydney defamation law firm has been revealed.

Former BlackBay Lawyers partner Justin Carroll, left, and Yianni Van Gelder, right.

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A slew of horrifying anti-Semitic slurs and bizarre conspiracy theories exchanged between two senior lawyers as they plot to leave a prominent Sydney defamation law firm and start their own rival practice has been exposed in a cache of WhatsApp messages.

Messages obtained by The Australian reveal former BlackBay Lawyers partner Justin Carroll and his colleague Yianni van Gelder railing against “more Jew confected antisemitism”; laughing at the ‘Holohoax’ and the ‘Schlomo-caust’; claiming a client will “try to ‘jew’ me” by negotiating better rates; and toying with not using OpenAI because CEO Sam Altman “is a Jew … that can only mean trouble”.

The disturbing messages reveal a predilection by the two lawyers for popcorn nights watching videos by notorious American alt-right anti-Semite Stew Peters who refers to Judaism as a “death cult built on the blood of murdered babies” and says he wants a “final solution” to remove Jews from the United States.

Former BlackBay Lawyers partner Justin Carroll.

The trove of incriminating messages reveals that for months before leaving BlackBay, Mr Carroll, 54, and Mr van Gelder, 28, were planning to set up a rival firm, allegedly taking clients and confidential information with them.

By September last year the pair were already happily discussing what Mr Carroll referred to as “our Operation Barbarossa”, apparently unaware it was the codename for Nazi Germany’s disastrous invasion of the Soviet Union.

In one exchange, on 30 January 2025, Mr van Gelder writes: “Will start extracting data, templates and precedent letters from BlackBay this weekend too”, to which Mr Carroll responds: “Yeah, me too.”

“Yeah, just make sure you copy the files properly, onto a portable hard drive”, Mr van Gelder cautions, before advising his colleague to “avoid leaving an email paper trail”.

Both men were terminated on 16 February 2025 for alleged “serious misconduct”, although at that point the firm was not aware of the anti-Semitic exchanges between the pair.

BlackBay has now launched legal action against Mr Carroll and Mr van Gelder in the NSW Supreme Court for the return of confidential information and delivery of computers, phones and electronic devices for forensic analysis.

BlackBay Lawyers' managing partner Victoria-Jane Otavski with former employee Yianni Van Gelder, right.

Meanwhile, Mr Carroll has lodged a fair work action against the firm in the Federal Court claiming he was unfairly cut out of work coming into the practice and was short-changed $25,000 on his final pay.

The $25,000 was an advance to Mr Carroll when he started with the firm, which he now claims he was verbally told he did not have to pay back. The defence in those proceedings has not been made available by the court after an objection was raised by Mr Carroll.

Mr van Gelder is separately set to defend five domestic violence charges on 16 May including choking and assault causing actual bodily harm, with an application by police for an apprehended domestic violence order for mention on the same day. Conditions were placed on his practising certificate banning him from taking on criminal law matters until the charges are dealt with.

BlackBay has enjoyed a quick rise to prominence in only three years, formed in 2022 by managing partner Victoria-Jane Otavski and head of business development Henry Jungnitsch.

Ms Otavski is described on the firms’ website as “one of Australia’s premier litigators, renowned and highly respected for her extensive experience and expertise in commercial litigation, employment law, defamation law, and regulatory law.”

The firm currently represents Ben Roberts-Smith in his appeal against the Nine newspapers and former Slater + Gordon staffer Mari Ruiz-Matthyssen, wrongly accused of a ‘malicious’ email hoax against the firm.

Mr Carroll had been hired as a salaried partner in 2023, boasting nearly 20 years experience practising in the Middle East, the UK and Australia.

But in early January Mr Carroll sent Ms Otavski an email outlining his “intention to move on” and later submitted his resignation effective from 28 February.

Mr Carroll allegedly said that he had told clients they could either stay with BlackBay or go with him, a move the firm believed was a breach of his obligations.

In early February Mr van Gelder told Ms Otavski that he was starting his own firm with Mr Carroll but pledged not to work with any of BlackBay’s clients.

Not long after, the firm became aware that the pair had been working on their proposed practice, Carroll van Gelder Lawyers, for some time.

In a WhatsApp message on 16 December, Mr van Gelder says: “We’re going to cream them. The best revenge is success.”

Mr Carroll responds: “And a dish best served cold.”

Later Mr Carroll says: “It would be good if our spies inside BlackBay could let us know whether or not Victoria is planning any litigation against us.”

Mr van Gelder responds: “If they were, they wouldn’t tell anyone that I’m still talking to.”

But far more damning than the plot to leave BlackBay are the anti-Semitic messages traded between the two.

As a Senate inquiry into anti-Semitism got underway in September last year, Mr van Gelder observed: “The Jews pull a few puppet strings and they get their own senate inquiry.”

After watching an Al Jazeera documentary on Gaza Mr Carroll declares: “Watch this documentary and tell me that Israel is not an utterly depraved society.”

In one conversation about a client, Mr van Gelder asks: “Have you responded to the Jew? He’s probably going to try to negotiate the rates.”

Mr Carroll responds: “You mean … he will try to “jew” me?

Mr van Gelder replies: “Yes that is the correct application of the verb.”

In another message Mr Carroll says: “Zionists are without question the closest thing we have to Nazis”.

Mr van Gelder responds: “Their religion basically tells them to harm children.”

Mr Carroll tells his colleague that “Jews fabricate most cases of antisemitism”, sharing a video claiming Jews are responsible for perpetrating the attacks. A picture of a stereotyped Jew spray-painting a swastika on a synagogue, with the words ‘Hey Rabbi … watcha doin?!’

When Mr van Gelder discovers Open AI CEO Sam Altman is a Jew he declares: “Don’t think we should use it anymore … it was created by a Jew. That can only mean trouble.”

One evening they decide to watch Occupied, a ‘documentary’ in which US extreme right wing broadcaster Stew Peters declares that the US is ‘occupied’ by Jews and that “for a century our country has been living under the yoke of the international Jew wrapped around its neck … a worldwide Jewish plague.”

Other must-watch views for the pair are a video claiming Israel was responsible for the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre), a clip of a Vietnamese shop owner refusing to serve Israelis and a video in which a US soldiers becomes disgusted with gay people and changes sides to become a Nazi, ending on a screenshot stating: HITLER WAS RIGHT.

Mr Carroll now works from an office near Martin Place in the CBD, but the Carroll Van Gelder Lawyers web address now diverts to the site Carroll Lawyers, which contains no mention of Mr van Gelder.

Mr Carroll told The Australian that the information was confidential and that he intended to take legal action against the newspaper. “The material has been improperly taken from me”, he said, but declined to respond to questions about the anti-Semitic statements in the messages.

Mr van Gelder initially said he would return The Australian’s call but had not done so by deadline.

A spokesperson for BlackBay Lawyers said the firm was unable to comment because of the ongoing litigation beyond noting that “when the abhorrent views and comments were unearthed, we were shocked. There is no place for such views and certainly not in our workplace.”

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