Di Maloney has lost her latest battle over legal fees.
A wealthy Point Piper woman who says she has spent $15 million on legal fees over recent years has lost the latest in a series of court battles against a succession of her own lawyers over costs.
Diane Maloney was last month ordered by the Supreme Court of NSW to pay $153,550.84 to her former lawyer Ryan Walker, a decision she intends to appeal. She received a similar judgment ordering her to pay her other lawyers $200,000 in costs six months ago.
Maloney, who described herself as a lawyer although she no longer practises, is the former wife of Sydney pub baron Kim Maloney, whose company operates some of the city’s largest venues including the Bondi Hotel, Gold Coast’s Clock Hotel and the Shark Bar in the CBD.
Walker was retained by Maloney to handle a complicated personal legal matter in late 2022, but he declined to comment when approached about the judgment.
Over several months Maloney met Walker and several barristers at both her Wolseley Road mansion and at another blue ribbon address, a $29 million Tamarama property she purchased in 2022 for a potential redevelopment.
Maloney’s Point Piper home made headlines in 2017 when she threw a lavish party, one of several documented on social media, while the pop star Justin Bieber was in Sydney, although she denied it was in his honour, despite his personal DJ and crew attending.
There were claims she had a skateboard ramp specially built for the party, but she clarified this week that it was a birthday gift for her then-teenage son.
“I’m not actually a fan of his [Bieber’s], nor am I a socialite … that was wrong. I am a lawyer, though I haven’t practised for a long time, and a businesswoman,” she told the Herald, although she declined to comment when asked about her ongoing financial issues with her lawyers.
Maloney also owns the historic Plaza Theatre site at 600 George Street, estimated to be worth up to $40 million, and according to property records, it is mortgaged to a company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands.
Previously part of her ex-husband’s hotel company, it has been the site of Planet Hollywood and the Star Bar mega venues, though it is currently dormant. Maloney said she has plans to relaunch the site as the Plaza Hotel following a major renovation.
The wealthy enclave of Wolseley Road, Point Piper.
This is not the first time Maloney has had issues with her lawyers over costs.
While she estimated she has spent at least $15 million on legal fees overall, in 2022 she commenced legal action in the NSW Supreme Court over an assessment of a $2.5 million legal bill she had been charged.
But no sooner had Maloney filed the notice of motion to challenge the validity of the charges, she decided to abandon her case. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Campbell later expressed astonishment when she claimed her former lawyers should foot the bill for the case after she had “capitulated” .
Surprisingly, she told the judge her dropped lawsuit was “almost certain to have succeeded” had it been “fully tried”.
Di Maloney’s Tamarama apartment was another place where she met her lawyers, whom she is now suing.
Justice Campbell was scathing in his December 2023 judgment, declaring her misplaced confidence of victory “unsustainable” after “her unilateral withdrawal”. On top of her original fees, she was then ordered to pay her lawyers an additional $200,000 in costs.
“To be quite clear, by abandoning her notice of motion, the second defendant also abandoned: her proposed challenges to the validity of her costs agreement with the plaintiffs and the validity of the tax invoices issued by the plaintiffs,” the judge said.
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correction
An earlier version of this story incorrectly referred to the Clock Hotel in Surry Hills, rather than the Gold Coast.