Decision record
Hughes, Owen Maldwyn
Allegation / charges
Allegation 1 - The Lawyer engaged in sexual harassment and / or workplace bullying in breach of Rule 42 of the Legal Profession Uniform Law Australian Solicitors’ Conduct Rules 2015 (“the Solicitors’ Rules”) Further, or in the alternative: Allegation 2 - The Lawyer engaged in inappropriate, improper and / or threatening conduct towards Ms H (an employee and a former client) Allegation 3 - The Lawyer, whilst acting for Ms H, attempted to exercise undue influence to obtain a benefit (of a sexual nature) in breach of Solicitors' Rule 12.2 (conflict concerning solicitor's own interests) Allegation 4 - The Lawyer inappropriately and / or improperly attempted to prevent Ms H from making a lawful complaint to the Australian Human Rights Commission (“AHRC”) Allegation 5 - The Lawyer improperly used privileged and / or confidential information against his former client Further, and / or in the alternative: Allegation 6 - The Lawyer disclosed privileged or confidential information in breach of Solicitors' Rule 9 (confidentiality) Allegation 7 - The Lawyer during Federal Circuit Court proceedings, made improper allegations or suggestions under privilege, in breach of Solicitors' Rule 21.2 (responsible use of court process and privilege) Allegation 10 - The Lawyer failed to disclose the existence of the AHRC complaint and / or the Federal Circuit Court proceedings, in his practising certificate renewal application(s) for the years 2017 - 2019. Allegation 11 - The Lawyer failed to comply with a management system direction in breach of section 257 of the Legal Profession Uniform Law — Unsatisfactory Professional Conduct
Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision
The provided text sets out only the allegations against the Lawyer, including sexual harassment/workplace bullying, inappropriate and threatening conduct toward an employee/former client, attempting to exercise undue influence for a sexual benefit, attempting to prevent an AHRC complaint, improper use and disclosure of privileged/confidential information, improper allegations under privilege in court proceedings, failure to disclose the AHRC complaint and court proceedings in practising certificate renewals, and failure to comply with a management system direction. No tribunal findings, determinations of dishonesty, or sanctions are stated in the supplied text.
Duties found breached:
- No abuse of process or coercive powers
- No improper communication with the court
- No unlawful discrimination or harassment
- No conflict between current clients
- No baseless or threatened misconduct report
⚠ figures not found verbatim in the source were dropped: ["extracted_from_register_summary"]
Duties engaged
- No abuse of process or coercive powers
- Proper basis for allegations
- No improper questioning of witnesses
- No improper communication with the court
- No unlawful discrimination or harassment
- Client confidentiality
- Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank
- Fair, reasonable and lawful fees
- Disclose referrals, commissions and benefits
- No acting against a former client
- No own-interest conflict
- No conflict between current clients
- No improper benefit, loan or bequest
- No obstruction or victimisation of reporters
- No baseless or threatened misconduct report
Other decisions involving this respondent
Matched by respondent name — may include a different person with the same name.
Documents
No documents recorded.
Source: https://portal.olsc.nsw.gov.au/dasearchbn/daresultdetail/?id=54aa2d6b-340d-40b2-9fa0-094e985b6428