Grant Reuben FORWARD

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

Grant Reuben Forward, a barrister, was found guilty of fraud after a jury trial for misappropriating $89,300 in settlement funds belonging to his client Jack Barker, and was sentenced to 3.5 years imprisonment. In the disciplinary proceeding, the Tribunal found professional misconduct on Charge 1 (conviction of a serious offence) and Charge 2 (failure to respond to the Commissioner's s 543(1) notice). The Tribunal expressly characterised the conduct as blatant dishonesty and recommended his name be removed from the roll. As no exceptional circumstances existed under s 462(1), costs were ordered against him. The client's compensation application was adjourned.

Duties found breached:

• Proper basis for allegations
• No baseless or threatened misconduct report

Aggravating factors:

• Gross breach of trust of client on direct brief
• No remorse shown; did not accept conduct
• Misappropriation of $89,300 client settlement funds
• Conduct brought the profession and himself into disrepute
• Convicted of fraud and sentenced to 3.5 years imprisonment

Mitigating factors:

• Did not contest the discipline application or sanctions sought