Consequences for gun-hating PI prince following misconduct finding … Not fit and proper for LawCover board ... Yet still OK for Law Society council ... Pinged for relatively insignificant touting
NSW LawSoc councillor and personal injury magnate Robert Bryden has fallen partially on his sword, without fatally wounding himself.
He had little room to manoeuvre following the professional misconduct finding against him made by the ADT on June 6.
On June 17 he sent a letter to LawSoc prez Justin Dowd resigning from the society's professional conduct and audit committees.
Resignation accepted, with thanks, etc.
He's also off his $59,000 a year board seat at LawCover, as he would have been in breach of APRA's "fit and proper" guidelines.
See: All fit and proper at LawCover
Strangely, Robert remains a councillor of the Law Society, although Dowdy has decided that he should not be a "councillor pair".
He's on leave of absence from council for the next two meetings. Thereafter it's expected he'll have to surrender and not seek reelection.
It's not a great look for the solicitors' governing body to be dotted with those who've fallen foul of the stipes.
Mind you, it was a silly sort of misadventure for which the Lotus driving Bryden and his former partner, Bandeli Hagipantelis, were spanked.
People had to delve into http://brydens.com.au and ferret around to find some puffery about the firm's brilliance at "personal injury". There were also a couple of newspaper advertisements that formed part of the complaint.
However, the very mention by a solicitor in public of the words "personal injury" is forbidden by s.24 of the Legal Profession Act.
This does not stop other firms putting up billboards touting themselves as "insurance compensation specialists".
It all seems slightly over-the-top.
Robert will have to get the scrubbing brush onto his Linkedin entry so that his membership of the professional conduct committee is slightly less prominent.
Also, it might be wise to remove the flourishes about his personal injury expertise.
Bryden's most recent contribution to the public debate was a letter to The Sydney Morning Herald earlier this month, speaking-up for shooters who have just been given rights to blast away in the state's national parks:
"What a breath of fresh air - a commonsense policy to clean out some of our national parks of feral animals. I hate guns, but if some people are willing to spend their own time and their own money getting rid of the scourges that are feral dogs, cats, foxes and the like - fantastic.
If native animals could vote, they'd be unanimous in their support of this great idea.
Robert Bryden, Balmain East."