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Finch, Leigh Paul

JurisdictionAustralia — New South Wales
BodyOffice of the Legal Services Commissioner (NSW) (OLSC)
Professionbarrister
Date15-May-2025
HearingCouncil of The New South Wales Bar Association
OutcomeImmediately suspend the practising certificate of Leigh Finch pursuant to s 77(1) of the Legal Profession Uniform Law (NSW) $0.00 Disciplinary Action

Allegation / charges

(a) Leigh Finch has contravened a condition of the certificate, namely the statutory condition in section 51 of the Legal Profession Uniform Law (NSW) to notify the Bar Council in writing within 7 days of his conviction for two notifiable summary offences in Wollongong Local Court on 29 April 2025; (b) a local regulatory authority, being the Legal Services Commissioner, has made a recommendation to that effect under section 278 of the Legal Profession Uniform Law (NSW); (c) the Bar Council reasonably believes that Leigh Finch is unable to fulfil the inherent requirements of an Australian legal practitioner, and the Bar Council considers it in the public interest to suspend the certificate immediately. — Unable to fulfil the inherent requirements of an Australian legal practitioner

Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision

SanctionSuspension
Dishonesty foundNo

The Bar Council immediately suspended Leigh Finch's practising certificate after he was convicted of two notifiable summary offences in Wollongong Local Court on 29 April 2025 and failed to notify the Bar Council within 7 days as required by section 51 of the Legal Profession Uniform Law (NSW). The Legal Services Commissioner recommended suspension under section 278, and the Bar Council reasonably believed he was unable to fulfil the inherent requirements of an Australian legal practitioner and that suspension was in the public interest.

Duties found breached:

⚠ figures not found verbatim in the source were dropped: ["extracted_from_register_summary"]

Duties engaged

Documents

No documents recorded.

Source: https://portal.olsc.nsw.gov.au/dasearchbn/daresultdetail?id=276ea13e-4736-4c37-8861-d019ecea245f