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O'donnell, John Alexander

JurisdictionAustralia — New South Wales
BodyOffice of the Legal Services Commissioner (NSW) (OLSC)
Professionsolicitor — (Formerly) John A O'Donnell & Associates
Case number[2010] NSWADT 130
Date31-May-2010
HearingLegal Services Division of the Administrative Decisions Tribunal
OutcomeCosts Removal of practitioner's name from the Roll of Local Lawyers $0.00 Proceedings Instituted

Allegation / charges

<p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">1. Wilfully breached Sections 255 and 264 of Legal Profession Act 2004 - relating to trust funds</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">2. Wilfully breached Section 264 of the Legal Profession Act 2004 - handling of trust moneys</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">3. Misappropriated funds</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">4. Falsely witnessed documentation</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">5. Made false entries to trust account records</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">6. Breached Section 262 of the Legal Profession Act 2004 - deficiency in trust account</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">7. Misled the Investigator</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">8. Misled the Law Society</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">9. Acted without instructions</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">10. Made a false document titled "Trust Account Reconciliation"</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">11. Attempted to misappropriate funds</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">12. Prepared a false tax invoice</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">13. Breached undertakings that he provided to the Office of the Legal Services Commissioner</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">14. Breached Section 660 of the Legal Profession Act 2004</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">15. Acted unethically by holding out to the solicitor for an opposing party that he was his client's legal representative at a time when he had been suspended from practice</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">16. Without reasonable excuse, the Solicitor failed to communicate with the Office of the Legal Services Commissioner with respect to 2 distinct complaints</span></p> — Professional Misconduct Unsatisfactory Professional Conduct

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

SanctionOther
Dishonesty foundYes

The solicitor was found to have engaged in professional misconduct and unsatisfactory professional conduct involving misappropriation and attempted misappropriation of funds, trust account breaches (ss 255, 262, 264 Legal Profession Act 2004), falsely witnessing documents, making false trust records, preparing a false tax invoice and false reconciliation, misleading the investigator and Law Society, breaching undertakings, acting without instructions, holding out as a legal representative while suspended, and failing to respond to the OLSC. No sanction details are stated in the provided text.

Duties found breached:

⚠ figures not found verbatim in the source were dropped: ["extracted_from_register_summary"]

Duties engaged

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  • Decision 2007-08-22 · OLSC · Australia — New South Wales · Reprimand $0.00 About ​ About the OLSC The Commissioner His…
  • Decision 2006-08-18 · OLSC · Australia — New South Wales · Compensation Order Reprimand $0.00 About ​ About the OLSC T…

Matched by respondent name — may include a different person with the same name.

Documents

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Source: https://portal.olsc.nsw.gov.au/dasearchbn/daresultdetail?id=d15ba7df-b633-eb11-bf74-000d3ad1941e