Lawyer X struck off for ‘duplicitous’ conduct
The Victorian Supreme Court has struck Nicola Gobbo off the legal practitioner roll for her ‘duplicitous’ conduct in acting as both a lawyer and a police informant.
The Victorian Supreme Court has struck Nicola Gobbo off the legal practitioner roll for her “duplicitous” conduct in acting as both a lawyer and a police informant.
Under the agreed facts between Ms Gobbo, also known as Lawyer X, and the Victorian Legal Services Board, Ms Gobbo was a solicitor and then barrister between 1999 and 2005 when she was an informant.
In her written judgment, judge Jacinta Forbes said the relationship between lawyer and client was a fiduciary one with a loyalty to the client’s interest; holding the confidence of the client’s information and avoiding conflict between the client’s interest and others, including their own, was “fundamental”.
She said Ms Gobbo disclosed confidential information to the police without clients’ knowledge or consent and put herself in positions of conflict of interest.
“The agreed facts before me provide a stark illustration of the duplicitous nature of the conduct,” she said. “The descriptions of the conduct in the agreed facts are fundamental and appalling breaches of her obligations to those clients.”
In relation to one of Ms Gobbo’s clients, she suggested to Victoria Police that he was a good candidate to give evidence against another of her clients.
“[She] told Victoria Police that ‘if her client had no money, he may talk’ and informed Victoria Police her client had told her about the general location of a clandestine drug laboratory and said she hoped they would arrest others at the same time they arrested her client.”
Justice Forbes said agreed facts showed a departure from all three principles underpinning fitness for office. “The conduct demonstrated partiality and so lacked honesty. It lacked a knowledge of what ought to be done and in executing her duties, she did so without the ability to maintain loyalty and confidentiality that the fiduciary relationship demanded above all other interests.”
The final report by the Royal Commission into the Management of Police Informants is due to report by November 30.
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