Jennifer Messado

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

The complainant, a property developer, was a long-standing client of the attorney Jennifer Messado. The attorney entered into an Agreement for Sale of three of the complainant's St. Andrew properties purportedly on his behalf, without his instructions or intention to sell, and took a significant deposit from the intended purchaser. Caveats were lodged against two titles. The attorney retained one duplicate certificate of title. The Committee found her guilty of professional misconduct, finding her conduct showed a clear lack of probity and involved dishonesty likely to bring the profession into disrepute. She was struck from the Roll, ordered to deliver up the title for 7 Central Avenue within 14 days, and to pay costs of $150,000.

Duties found breached:

• No baseless or threatened misconduct report
• Uphold public trust in the profession

Aggravating factors:

• Attorney took a significant deposit from the intended purchaser
• Conduct involved dishonesty likely to bring the profession into disrepute
• Failed to appear to make submissions in mitigation