Drew Adrian KELLAHAN

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

Solicitor Drew Kellahan was found to have committed professional misconduct on three charges: undertaking legal work for a private client while holding only a non-principal practicing certificate (without indemnity insurance), making a careless misleading representation about a trust account payment, and failing to respond to QLS notices for 7 months. Both parties agreed the conduct did not involve dishonesty or deceit. The Tribunal accepted a joint submission on penalty, imposing a public reprimand, a 3-year bar on holding a practicing certificate, supervision and ethics-retraining conditions on return, a $75,000 payment to the affected client, and $5,000 costs.

Duties found breached:

• No improper use of client money
• Diligence and timeliness
• Professional indemnity insurance
• Hold a current practising certificate
• No baseless or threatened misconduct report

Aggravating factors:

• Offending involved both ethical and organisational oversights
• Disregard and disrespect for legal governing bodies

Mitigating factors:

• Genuine but mistaken belief that his business relationship entitled him to act
• No deliberate dishonesty or deceit found
• Has not practiced law since May 2009 and holds no current practicing certificate
• No previous disciplinary findings
• Apologised and acknowledged delay
• Voluntarily agreed to repay $75,000 to Mr Newitt and had begun repayments
• Cooperated via agreed statement of facts and joint submissions