By Kishor Napier-Raman and Tom Cowie
His favourite catchphrase for clients entering the courtroom is “tough times never last, tough people do”, and criminal defence lawyer-slash-TV legal eagle Michael Kuzilny may need to start following his own advice.
The media-savvy Kuzilny, who specialises in traffic offences, while favouring a pinstripe suit that would fit right in on Better Call Saul, is facing legal action from an ex-staff member over allegations of unwelcome sexual advances, physical harassment and a pressurised work environment.
Tziporah Malkah, formerly known as Kate Fischer, and her lawyer Michael Kuzilny, outside court in Adelaide in 2018.Credit: AAP
Kuzilny, who recently moved from Melbourne to Sydney and has appeared as a legal expert on morning TV, including Seven’s Sunrise, has rejected suggestions he failed to provide a safe workplace to his former executive assistant and operations manager, Tamzyn Roadknight.
Roadknight, who was employed at Kuzilny’s MK Criminal Lawyers between November 2018 and September 2020, has lodged a writ in the Victorian County Court seeking damages over Kuzilny’s behaviour towards her, which she claims has left her unable to work since.
Among Roadknight’s allegations of inappropriate touching are that Kuzilny would regularly hug her and give her shoulder massages while at work without her consent. On one occasion, he is alleged to have put his head on her lap and said: “Why does this feel so right?”
Roadknight’s writ also details a string of alleged sexual advances, including Kuzilny turning up to her house uninvited to ask her out to dinner and telling her in voicemails that he loved her.
Kuzilny is also alleged in court documents to have “firmly suggested her to wear fishnet stockings” while meeting Ultra Tune boss Sean Buckley to encourage him to sponsor his TV show, Tough Times Never Last (available on community stations Channel 31 and Foxtel Aurora, previous guests include Sam Newman and Anthony Mundine).
In response, Roadknight claims she told Kuzilny that she was not interested in him and that she was in her own relationship. After being rejected, Kuzilny is alleged to have retaliated by putting pressure on Roadknight and using abusive language, including that she was overpaid and had low intelligence.
“These claims are false, misleading, and taken out of context,” Kuzilny told CBD. “They were never raised during her employment and only surfaced long after she left.”
Kuzilny has engaged Wisewould Mahony to act on his behalf. Roadknight is represented by Attwood Marshall, which did not return a request for comment.
War chests
According to Canberra bubble conventional wisdom, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is just days away from kicking off the formal campaign mode ahead of an April 12 election.
That means talk of a federal budget, pencilled in for March 25, and which a few poor public servants are still beavering away towards, is just that: talk.
Still, despite this masthead’s report of an “economic update” this week paving the way for the PM to call the election imminently, Albo and Jim Chalmers keep dropping hints that a March budget is on the cards. So the opposition are taking no chances.
Last week, invitations started circulating for a March 27 federal budget reply dinner fundraiser, in Canberra, venue TBC.
Tickets aren’t cheap, starting out at $1500 a head, with a premium table of nine setting punters back $22,000.
More interestingly, the ticketing page has different price structures for various MPs and senators that guests can register under. So if you’re keen to support shadow treasurer Angus Taylor, a single seat costs $2500. Whereas a seat supporting new-ish NSW senator Maria Kovacic costs $1500. Rookie Victorian MP Aaron Violi is worth $2200 a ticket, and if you’re sensing a gender discrepancy with the pricing what did you expect? It is the Liberal Party after all.
There’s even an option to buy a $1500 ticket supporting Senator Hollie Hughes, who probably won’t even be using that title after the upcoming poll. Hughes was dumped from a winnable spot on the party’s Senate ticket last year after a preselection defeat she blamed on Taylor. We think they might have used an old event page.
Anyway, while the event is live, most people on the blue side aren’t expecting it to happen, and any cash raised through ticket sales will go straight to the election campaign war chest.
Lawyered up
Sometimes it helps to be friends with lawyers.
According to a register of interest disclosure, Liberal senator and opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson received “assistance with [a] legal matter courtesy Arnold Bloch Leibler”.
Rather intriguing, and unfortunately, intriguing it will remain. Paterson declined to comment – it’s a legal matter after all – and we didn’t hear back from the firm. But CBD understands it was a fairly minor matter.
Opposition spokesman for home affairs James Paterson.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
This isn’t the first time ABL has helped out a politician mate, with the firm also providing Opposition Leader Peter Dutton with legal advice for an undisclosed matter last year.
Dutton and Paterson, meanwhile, aren’t ABL’s only mates in Canberra. The firm is arguably run by some of Australia’s most politically connected lawyers. Its 70th birthday bash in 2023 saw Prime Minister Anthony Albanese give a speech as guest of honour, with then-Victorian premier Dan Andrews also attending. No wonder senior partner Mark Leibler is sometimes jestingly known as “the Powerbroker”.
On the town
Spotted: Billionaire WiseTech founder and “LinkedIn lecher” Richard White in “the uniform” – light tan trousers, blue shirt, dark blue blazer – wheeling a large briefcase into Sydney CBD power tower 1 Bligh Street on Monday afternoon.
Makes sense because 1 Bligh houses White’s law firm, Clayton Utz, which he’s been spending an awful lot of time with of late. White returned to WiseTech as executive chairman last week, just months after being forced out following allegations about his conduct revealed by this masthead.
White’s return followed the resignation of four independent directors last week, over a boardroom dispute about an independent review into White’s conduct toward women.
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