Arlene Ann Gaynor

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

The General Legal Council Disciplinary Committee found attorney Arlene Gaynor guilty of professional misconduct in a conveyancing transaction. She failed to disclose to the purchasers' attorney an existing mareva injunction and caveats lodged by Garland Ferguson against the vendors' title, made misrepresentations that her clients were 'in a position to close' when they were not, induced the purchasers to pay funds, continued to act and called on a (expired) bank undertaking after her retainer was terminated, and delayed refunding monies for six months. The Panel found she 'was not speaking the truth' and perpetrated misrepresentation/deception in breach of Canons VI(a) and I(b), failing to act with honesty and integrity, though her misconduct did not involve dishonesty in the handling of money. She was suspended for six months (1 July–31 December 2004), ordered to pay restitution of $55,220.25 interest and costs of $40,000.

Duties found breached:

• Uphold public trust in the profession
• No conflict between current clients
• No baseless or threatened misconduct report

Aggravating factors:

• Displayed no remorse and attempted to justify her conduct to the very end
• Length of practice (since 1994) meant she ought to have known the appropriate standards
• Failed to refund sums paid for six months and only after complaint laid; no interest paid
• Made misrepresentations to colleague and induced payments based on false statements

Mitigating factors:

• Good record with no prior disciplinary offence
• Misconduct did not involve dishonesty in the handling of client money