ALESSANDRO PALUMBO
JurisdictionAustralia — Western Australia
BodyLegal Practice Board of Western Australia (LPBWA)
Professionlawyer — Irwin Chambers, Level 3 16 Irwin Street PERTH WA 6000
Case numberLegal Practitioners Complaints Committee v Palumbo [2005] WASCA 129
Date13 May 2005
HearingSupreme Court of WA
OutcomeStruck Off the Roll of Practitioners
Allegation / charges
Struck Off the Roll of Practitioners
Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision
SanctionStrike Off
Dishonesty foundYes
Palumbo, admitted 1996, faced two disciplinary reports. First: possession of cocaine (fined $1500 in criminal court, spent conviction). Second: conspiracy to defeat the course of justice by arranging his nephew to take responsibility for a red-light traffic infringement to avoid licence suspension, then lying to police (fined $3000). The Full Bench found the conspiracy especially serious and dishonest, undermining confidence in him as a practitioner. Despite mitigating factors, the Court held striking off was the only appropriate outcome and ordered him removed from the Roll.
Duties found breached:
Aggravating factors:
- Conspiracy struck at the heart of justice
- Conduct engaged in after hours of reflection rather than on the spur of the moment
- Sustained dishonesty by a person who by reason of occupation should have known better
- Combination of two separate serious matters
Mitigating factors:
- Plea of guilty in both matters
- Voluntary cessation of practice/co-operation
- Traumatic marital separation in 1999
- Adverse publicity and struggle to find employment
- Favourable character references
- No prior criminal record
- Contrition and remorse