Search
This area does not yet contain any content.
Justinian News

Potty Mouth Solicitor Dispatched ... NSW Court of Appeal takes dim view of solicitor who laced his correspondence with disrespectful insults ... Insufficiently professional ... Arrived from Greece with only his underpants ... No contrition ... Anthony Kanaan files ... Read more >>

Politics Media Law Society


The End Of The Affair ... Lord Moloch’s bid for more Fox News fans … The Wall Street Journal rallies the MAGA base …Will the old rogue abandon his journalists? … Is “bawdy” the right word here? … The Deep State plumbs the depths … John and Stanley Roth’s generosity to loving causes ... Read on >> 

Free Newsletter
Justinian Columnists

Suing for defamation - it's such a good idea ...Federal Court of Australia ... Sydney barrister loses bid for extension of time to bring appeal over decision allowing Giles George to intervene to seek an equitable lien over costs ... Falling out between barrister and firm after successful defamation action ... No error or procedural unfairness ... From Stephen Murray at the Gazette of Law & Journalism ... Read more >> 

Blow the whistle

 

News snips ...


Major victory for the media as public interest defence established in large and lengthy defamation case brought by orthopaedic surgeon ... Al Muderis v Nine Network, Fairfax and The Age ... Good journalism wins the day ... More >> 

Justinian's Bloggers

Postcard from London ... Summertime - And the living' is easy ... Votes for 16-year olds ... Paralegal's theft by pen ... Spy helping British intelligence from his job at Border Force ... Super-injunction comes out of the shadows ... Feed them strawberries and cream ... Floyd Alexander-Hunt files from Blighty ... Read more >> 

"I've stopped six wars in the last - I'm averaging about a war a month. But the last three were very close together. India and Pakistan, and a lot of them. Congo was just and Rwanda was just done, but you probably know I won't go into it very much, because I don't know the final numbers yet. I don't know. Numerous people were killed, and I was dealing with two countries that we get along with very well, very different countries from certain standpoints. They've been fighting for 500 years, intermittently, and we solved that war. You probably saw it just came out over the wire, so we solved it ..."

President Donald Trump at a meeting in Scotland with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer ... July 28, 2025 ... Read more flatulence ... 


Justinian Featurettes

Home Duties ... The dumping of Attorney General Mark Dreyfus ... Behind the scenes ... Bastardry among the brothers ... Unfinished business ... Family law, privacy ... Considerable policy and legislative results ... Here's Michelle Rowland as AG ... What are her priors? ... Polly Peck reports from the Gallery ... Read more >> 


Justinian's archive

Abolish silks ... Sydney SC writes to the editor calling for abolition of the silk system ... Appointments are anachronistic ... It's not a matter of ability, only notability ... Secret blackballing ... "Corrupt" process ... Confessions from an insider who played the game ... From Justinian's Archive, October 24, 2002 ... Read more >> 


 

 

« McHugh enteres the Patrick Power affair | Main | Spinning Clutz' internal memos »
Friday
Jun012007

Sex, drugs and death 

Peter Hayes QC died seven years ago in distressing circumstances ... Peter Faris and Isaac Brott were on hand to warn us about the dangers of lawyers taking too many powders ... From Justinian's archive ... June 1, 2007 

Peter Hayes: his death brought about a storm of finger-pointing.

THE news that the Melbourne bar n' grill is awash with drugs, booze, egos and hookers caught everyone by surprise. 

The death of Peter Hayes QC following a drug romp with a hooker in an Adelaide hotel room brought out the best spirit of the VicBar. 

The helpful Peter Faris was to the fore with the assertion that the bar council was in a state of denial about drug infused barristers. 

Solicitor Isaac Brott went in harder, saying that Hayesy was a drug addict. 

No one who has spoken-up has actually seen Hayes ingesting drugs - but this scarcely matters since he appeared to behave "erratically" and was "highly eccentric". 

Another unnamed barrister told the press that Hayes was "seriously bipolar". 

Sir Lorenzo Street thought that Hayes was "unpredictable in court". 

He assumed it was just part of his forensic style and never attributed it to drugs. In fact, he had never seen a barrister under the influence of drugs, ever. 

It gets better. The VicBar ethics committee did not investigate a complaint Brott made two years ago about the pill-popping Hayes because the allegations amounted to "conjecture". 

Brott says that decision might have cost Hayes his life ... if only they'd listened to Isaac.

A hospital worker from Adelaide stepped forward with "a leak from Hayes treatment file", saying that the "flamboyant" silk tested positive to levels of cocaine and heroin. 

Legal ethicist Ysaiah (formerly Stan) Ross, called for random drug tests for lawyers. 

The following week the former Stan was calling on lawyers to have a proper dob-in-a-colleague scheme, since substance abuse has "brought the profession into disrepute". 

Legal affairs scribbler Chris Merritt also called for formal health surveys for members of the profession. 

He went on to say that Hayes was a "drug-using loon" and that his case just shows that the entire silk system is a "sick joke". 

Ethicist Ross managed to point to three serious drug related cases affecting lawyers in the last six years: Andrew Fraser, David Quick and now Peter Hayes. 

It is to be hoped this outburst of finger pointing and outrage doesn't mean that lawyers will be banned from mucking around in hotel rooms with pills, liquor and other entertainments. 

Fortunately, the profession has had self-effacing types such as Peter Faris and Isaac Brott to show the way on this vital issue.

While The Australian was pushing Brott as an exemplar of legal virtue, The Financial Review had to point out his string of runs-ins with the stipes, including: a conflict of interest in the sale of a client's property; setting aside an unreasonable costs agreement; his successful appeal against a conviction for forgery; plus further matters still before VCAT, including accepting instructions from someone allegedly incapable of giving instructions. 

My own feeling is that there would be few better ways to shuffle off the mortal coil that with a cocktail of sex and drugs. 

It was left to Melbourne business identity Mick Gatto to show some respect. In a death notice in the Hun, Gatto said of Hayes: 

"An absolute gentleman. Your support in hard times has not gone forgotten. Condolences to the family. Rest in peace." 

Note. 

In February 2011, Brotty was put off the track for eight years, following a finding of four charges of misconduct.  

We reported the sale of his digs in the city.  

By October 2007 Faris had torn-up his bar membership ticket

He was upset that the ethics committee has asked him to defend his remarks in May, following the death of Peter Hayes, that drug use at the bar was rife and that the bar council was in a state of denial about it.

Faris says that not only is he a barrister but he is a "journalist and media commentator" and he has a right to free speech. 

Reader Comments

There are no comments for this journal entry. To create a new comment, use the form below.
Editor Permission Required
You must have editing permission for this entry in order to post comments.