New entrant in barristerial portrait genre ... Swindells, the accountant ... Poole-Jones ICAC phone intercepts ... North Shore purse raid ... Dizzo judges want pay finding overturned ... Queensland's new QCs ... The High Court invents the wheel
M.B. Lee SC by Val Landa
MICHAEL Lee's client James Ashby may have gone down in a heap in the abuse of process round, but the mighty silk is not the sort of chap to be crushed for more than a few moments - judging by his magnificent portrait.
Lee has been daubed by artist Val Landa in his robes. There's a reassuring confidence as he stares out at us, hand perched on his hip in his book-lined chambers.
Masculine ... Magnificent ... Mesmerising - are some of the descriptions that rush to mind.
And his eyes follow you around the room.
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THE relatives of wealthy Point Piper women Betty Harris, who were chopped from her will, must be gratified in the knowledge that her $10 million estate went to struggling lawyer and Wyuna Road neighbour Beatrice Gray.
Betty Harris died childless aged 95 in September 2009, and a battle over her will has been going on for the last three years.
HH Richard White rejected evidence that Betty had dementia and wasn't up to making a revised will in 2005.
Her closest living relative was her niece, Coralie Hart of Coffs Harbour, who was a beneficiary of an earlier will. Coralie's son-in-law is the unfortunately named Sydney accountant Darryl Swindells, a partner in the auditing shop HLB Mann Judd.
In February 2005 the Guardianship Tribunal appointed Mrs Hart and other relatives as Betty's guardians.
Swindells was appointed as the financial manager of her affairs.
In Gray v Hart & Ors, it was alleged that Swindells had not properly performed his duties as financial manager:
"For some months he left Mrs Harris without adequate funds. He prevented her from being able to write cheques as she was accustomed to do. Further, it was submitted that Mrs Harris' suspicion that Mrs Hart and her son-in-law were after her money was well-founded."
HH Richard White was scathing about poor Darryl.
HLB Mann Judd had charged fees of $206,675.90 to manage Mrs Harris' finances, and this was after Darryl undertook only to charge out-of-pocket expenses, not fees.
His firm was also getting commissions for Mrs Harris' money invested with MLC.
He transferred Betty's money into a separate cheque account, with himself as the sole signatory.
He also arranged for his wife Amanda to draw on the funds with a debit card. She knocked-up $25,179 in seven weeks. Swindells said these purchases were all for Mrs Harris' benefit, who by this stage had been struck down by a stroke.
Items paid for on the card included clothes from Sussan, Witchery and Lululemon Athletica, cosmetics from Mecca Cosmetica in Mosman and other frippery from David Jones and Myer.
HH found that Betty changed her will because of her anger towards Mrs Hart and Swindells.
By any chance could this be the same Darryl Swindells who is the auditor of the NSW Bar Association's annual accounts?
Footnote: Betty Harris' late husband was the colourful Sydney racing identity Keith Harris, vice-chairman of the Sydney Turf Club.
He did a stretch of porridge after delivering a bribe to prisons' minister Rex (Buckets) Jackson as part of the "early release scheme" for various criminals, including clients of the former Sydney solicitor Howard Hilton.
Hilton also did time and for a while was Justinian's Long Bay correspondent.
Beatrice Gray said: "I'm grateful to Betty Harris."
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Stephen Estcourt QC with his wife Mary (pic: The Mercury)
I HEAR that Tasmanian silk Stephen Estcourt has given notice he will be leaving Derwent & Tamar Chambers, effective March 31, 2013.
Is a judicial perch expected?
He's not saying. Maybe the renowned foodie will go into catering or establish a canteen for the needy.
Colleagues tell me it's more likely that if he doesn't land on the Supreme Court he will set up "a very different sort of law shop".
* * *
NSW readers have swooned with pleasure at the daily screeds flowing from ICAC's investigation into the highly odoriferous Obeid-Cascade Coal deal.
One of the central figures is Richard Poole, a wide-boy from Perth who fetched-up in Sydney with his own boutique deal shop, ArthurPhillip.
Poole, and his air hostess wife Amanda, have been put through the third degree at ICAC as it seeks information that he arranged for the Obeids' secret interest in Cascade to be paid out for $60 million - without disclosing this small detail to some of the other directors or the ASX.
ICAC released transcripts of phone intercepts that record Poole talking to a character called Greg Jones, a wealthy, well-fed mate of the former Mines Minister, the suss Ian Macdonald.
Macdonald had granted Cascade an exploration licence for coal underneath the grazing land belonging to the Obeids and various of their cronies.
The reptiles of the press have had a field-day with bits of the transcript of the phone intercepts, but this important slice has been overlooked.
Jones and Poole ICAC intercept
For idle holiday enjoyment here are the extended expletive-laden chats between (Digger) Poole and Jones ...
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A DEPRESSING story in the North Shore Times (Sydney) shows how bleak times have become for lawyers ...
"A solicitor who specialises in conveyancing, traffic matters and minor crime was charged with stealing a woman's handbag from a Crows Nest hotel. Police said a Cremorne man, 34, met an Artarmon woman, 38, at a barristers function on November 17. CCTV cameras allegedly caught him taking out her wallet and passport from her bag while she was on the dance floor."
* * *
WHAT do you make of Reg Blanch's letter dated December 17 to NSW AG Greg Smith?
Chief Judge NSW District Court to Attorney General Greg Smith
NSW Dizzo judges are upset at the latest determination of the Statutory and Other Officers Remuneration Tribunal.
It's all to do with pay relativities between the courts.
Is Blanch suggesting the attorney general ignore or override the SOORT finding?
If so, should this be done inside or outside the tribunal's assessment procedure?
Is he writing in his capacity as a party to the SOORT determination?
If only Joe Bjelke-Petersen were still around to sort out these vexing separation of power issues.
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THE announcement this month from Queensland AG Jarrod Bleijie that SCs could convert to QCs in his glorious jurisdiction was filled with inspiring reassurances.
Apparently, it's an Asian thing, so Queensland barristers can compete more effectively in Singapore and Hong Kong.
Further:
"QC is also more widely known and understood by the public as a mark of professional distinction at the bar and this move will make the distinction much clearer."
It will also stop citizens muddling-up SCs with solicitors who ponce around calling themselves "special counsel".
Of course, it's nothing to do with the fact that the vowel-exploding Bleijie is a stark-raving monarchist.
It will be interesting to see how many Sunshine SCs keep faith with their own abilities without resorting to this flatulent marketing bauble.
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COMING to terms with the meaning of the words "any description of vehicle on wheels" in the Road Transport (General) Act, NSW, required the High Court in a special leave application last month to confront some difficult concepts.
See Verey v Andy's Earthworks Pty Ltd.
MR GROSS: Now, the question of whether the tracks or what is outside the wheel forms a circular shape, rather than some sort of elliptical shape or some mixture of rectangle and half-circles is an unwieldy way to define a vehicle. We would submit that just looking at the way in which the analysis proceeds it cannot be a principal basis upon which excluding tracked vehicles from vehicle ...
GAGELER J: It might be a principled way of dealing with what a wheel is, though, do you not think?
MR GROSS: Yes. I will accept the wheel could be circular – I do not think that is too controversial ...