Mills Kirin

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

Solicitor Mills John Kirin, acting for a husband in a domestic violence protection order matter, sent discourteous and offensive correspondence to the opposing solicitor between February and August 2022, including unsubstantiated personal attacks and, after a complaint, threats to have the complaint withdrawn. The Tribunal rejected the Commissioner's submission that the conduct amounted to professional misconduct, finding instead unsatisfactory professional conduct at the lesser end of the scale. No dishonesty was found. Sanctions: public reprimand, $2000 fine, mandatory specialist domestic violence training, and payment of the applicant's costs. The Commissioner had sought a $10,000 fine but the Tribunal fixed it at $2000, consistent with comparable cases.

Duties found breached:

• Uphold public trust in the profession
• No improper solicitation or touting

Aggravating factors:

• Continued conduct with apparent impunity despite complaint
• Made threats to have the complaint withdrawn (threatening to report opposing solicitor to ACT Law Service)
• Comment tending to diminish/minimise the impact of domestic violence
• Lack of insight into inappropriateness of his behaviour

Mitigating factors:

• Co-operation in admitting the conduct and not requiring witnesses to attend
• This was his first domestic and family violence matter
• Demonstrated insight and remorse via apology letter
• Steps taken by way of further education and self-improvement (completed ethics course)
• Correspondence not sent directly to the aggrieved
• No contravention of protection order and no criminal offence
• Correspondence was private and not disseminated to others
• Unblemished 20-year career with no disciplinary history