Terepo, Sesilia Fehoko

JurisdictionAustralia — New South Wales

BodyOffice of the Legal Services Commissioner (NSW) (OLSC)

Professionsolicitor — LMJ Lawyers

Case number[2022] NSWCA 210

Date25-Oct-2022

HearingSupreme Court of New South Wales Court of Appeal

Outcome1. Not be permitted to apply for a new practising certificate unless the following condition is satisfied: (a) Must, at her own expense, undertake, complete and pass (achieving a pass mark of not less than 70% or equivalent as approved by the Director, Legal Regulation of the Law Society (Director) acting reasonably) the Ethics component of the Practical Legal Training course conducted by the College of Law and the Trust Account component of the Practice Management course conducted by the Law Society of NSW (or such other course(s) as may be approved by the Director acting reasonably). (b) Is to provide to the Director the original result notification from the provider/s of those courses. $0.00 Proceedings Instituted

Allegation / charges

<ol><li>Misappropriated the sum of $850 withdrawn in cash on 9 December 2014 (Cash Withdrawal) from the trust account of her former law practice LMJ Lawyers (Law Practice);</li><li>Caused a deficiency in the trust account of her Law Practice by the Cash Withdrawal;</li><li>Breached s 255 of the Legal Profession Act 2004 by reason of the 39 withdrawals totalling $13,020.50 being made from the trust account of the Law Practice made between 3 November 2014 and 2 February 2015, including the Cash Withdrawal, and disbursing those amounts;</li><li>Breached s 255A of the Legal Profession Act 2004 by making the Cash Withdrawal;</li><li>Breached s 264 of the Legal Profession Act 2004 in the period 20 February 2014 to 29 June 2015 in that the trust records of the Law Practice were not kept in such a manner as to disclose their true position;</li><li>Breached s 263 of the Legal Profession Act 2004 in that she did not, as soon as practicable after becoming aware that there was an irregularity in the trust account of the Law Practice, give written notice of the irregularity to the Law Society;</li><li>Failed to comply with the notice under s 371 of the Legal Profession Uniform Law (NSW) served on her on 30 May 2016 by failing to provide the written information and documentation sought in the Notice.</li></ol> — Professional Misconduct

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

SanctionOther

Dishonesty foundNo

The practitioner was found guilty of professional misconduct for misappropriating $850 in cash withdrawn from her former law practice's trust account, causing a trust account deficiency, breaching ss 255, 255A, 264 and 263 of the Legal Profession Act 2004 (including 39 withdrawals totalling $13,020.50 and failing to keep proper trust records or notify the Law Society of the irregularity), and failing to comply with a s 371 notice under the Legal Profession Uniform Law (NSW). The excerpt records the findings only and does not state an express finding of dishonesty or the sanction imposed.

Duties found breached:

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

Duties engaged

Other decisions involving this respondent

[2018] NSWCATOD 106 2018-07-02 · OLSC · Australia — New South Wales · Costs Order recommending removal of lawyer's name from the …

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=95f69f90-2c19-401d-b3be-403de3329bd2