In the latest instalment of the longstanding feud involving the law shop Michael Wilson & Partners Ltd (MWP) and its former director, John Emmott, Mr Wilson’s conduct has ruled him ineligible to act for his firm in the Federal Court.
The applicant in the proceedings, MWP, is a company registered in the British Virgin Islands, with numerous offices in Central Asia.
The respondents, Jason Cronan, Terry Van Der Velde, Jason Porter and Richard Moretti, are insolvency practitioners who were appointed as trustees of the bankrupt estates of Robert Nicholls and David Slater, as agreed and funded by MWP.
The bankrupts, Nicholls and Slater, are former MWP lawyers who, alongside Emmott, in 2005, engaged in misconduct by diverting the firm’s business to a separate partnership, thus prompting countless proceedings in multiple jurisdictions over the past 20 years.
As an offshoot of that initial dispute, the present case forms part of a chain of litigation commencing in April 2020 regarding the administration of these bankrupt estates.
In each hearing, MWP has been represented by Wilson, who has been criticised on numerous occasions by the court for his conduct during trial.
Justice Angus Stewart described one proceeding in this series as “shockingly run” due to Wilson’s pursuit of litigation in a manner that is “obsessive, unrelenting and burdensome” (see Michael Wilson & Partners Ltd v Porter (No 3).
Notably, Wilson’s conduct included frequent interruptions to both the judge and respondent’s counsel, including a “scandalous accusation” that the court has entirely “lost sight of the reality of the matter”, and assertions that the respondent’s senior counsel Steven Golledge “wishes to bury the dead bodies … and doesn’t want the truth of the matter to come out”.
Further issues include late filing of documents and failure to comply with court timetables, adducing evidence which is of “little to no relevance”, and inappropriate correspondence with judges and their associates, with the “obvious purpose of attempting to influence the court”.
Wilson, a resident of Kazakhstan, explained this conduct was due to the fact he is “not as current and up-to-date in Australia … especially relating to Australian law and evidence”.
Whilst this may explain Wilson’s “strongly held yet mistaken views of evidence law in this country”, as noted by Justice Scott Goodman, it does not excuse it.
The delays and conduct are “well short of the standards expected of a practitioner appearing before the court”, so much so that the respondents made an interlocutory application that Wilson be restrained from acting for his firm in the present proceedings, and any other proceedings against Porter and Moretti in the Federal Court, in matters connected with the bankrupt estate of Slater.
Justice Goodman, in a judgment delivered December 16, 2025, approved the request, noting that although parties are usually entitled to retain their legal practitioner of choice, Wilson’s conduct in previous proceedings demonstrates he is unable, or unwilling, to act in an appropriate manner to facilitate the administration of justice.
Goodman stopped short of dismissing or staying the proceedings under s.37AO of the FCA Act. While the conduct did fall under the definition of vexatious proceedings, HH determined a change in legal representative should be sufficient to resolve the issue, and the respondents did not demonstrate that there was no viable cause of action.
At the respondents’ requests, Goodman additionally ordered that MWP pay $74,984 in outstanding costs owed to Porter and Moretti from two previous orders made by the Federal Court and High Court, which had not yet been paid.
He further stayed the proceeding if the payment was not provided within 21 days, but did not go so far as to order its dismissal should payment not be met.
The respondents were awarded $225,000 in under s.56 of the FCA Act, noting that although MWP is in a strong financial position, there is no evidence it has any real property or shareholdings in Australia.
MWP has to stump up the costs for the present hearing.
The matter’s existing paper trail suggests that an end is not in sight.
Michael Wilson & Partners Ltd v Cronan
See previous report: Keep The Engine Running