Legal Services Commissioner v Ioannides

QUEENSLAND CIVIL AND
ADMINISTRATIVE TRIBUNAL

CITATION:

Legal Services Commissioner v Ioannides [2020] QCAT 479

PARTIES:

LEGAL SERVICES COMMISSIONER

(applicant)

v

BRIANA CHRISTINE IOANNIDES

(respondent)

APPLICATION NO/S:

OCR098-20

MATTER TYPE:

Occupational regulation matters

DELIVERED ON:

17 December 2020

HEARING DATE:

10 December 2020

HEARD AT:

Brisbane

DECISION OF:

Justice Daubney, President

Assisted by:

Mr Peter Sheehy, Legal Panel Member
Dr Susan Dann, Lay Panel Member

ORDERS:

1.   The Tribunal recommends that the name of the respondent, Briana Christine Ioannides, be removed from the Roll of Legal Practitioners in Queensland.

2.   The respondent shall pay the applicant’s standard costs of and incidental to this discipline application, such costs to be assessed as if this were a matter before the Supreme Court of Queensland.

CATCHWORDS:

PROFESSIONS AND TRADES – LAWYERS – COMPLAINTS AND DISCIPLINE – PROFESSIONAL MISCONDUCT AND UNSATISFACTORY PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT – CRIMINAL OFFENCES – where the respondent pled guilty to multiple criminal offences, including the trafficking of dangerous drugs and breaches of bail undertakings – where the respondent was sentenced to eight years six months’ imprisonment – where the respondent’s conduct did not occur in connection with legal practice – where the conduct amounted to protracted criminality involving serious and persistent criminal offending – whether the respondent’s conviction for serious offences warrants a finding of professional misconduct – whether the respondent’s conduct was likely, to a material degree, to bring the profession into dispute such as to warrant a finding of professional misconduct

PROFESSIONS AND TRADES – LAWYERS – COMPLAINTS AND DISCIPLINE – DISCIPLINARY PROCEEDINGS – QUEENSLAND – ORDERS – where orders in the disciplinary jurisdiction are shaped in the interests of protecting the community from unsuitable practitioners – where the respondent has led some evidence of remorse, of suffering from a substance abuse disorder which significantly impacted upon her judgment, and of undertaking rehabilitation – whether the respondent’s conduct is demonstrative of a character which is incompatible with the personal qualities essential for the conduct of legal practice – whether the current probability is that the respondent is permanently unfit to practise, such as to warrant the making of an order recommending the removal of the respondent’s name from the Roll of Legal Practitioners

Legal Profession Act 2007 (Qld) s 419, s 420, sch 2

Attorney-General for the State of Queensland v Legal Services Commissioner & Anor; Legal Services Commissioner v Shand [2018] QCA 66

Council of the Law Society of New South Wales v Parente [2019] NSWCA 33
Legal Services Commissioner v Madden (No 2) [2008] QCA 301
Legal Services Commissioner v Munt [2019] QCAT 160
Stanoevski v The Council of the Law Society of New South Wales [2008] NSWCA 93

Ziems v The Prothonotary of the Supreme Court of New South Wales (1957) 97 CLR 279

APPEARANCES & REPRESENTATION:
Applicant:	J Crawford, instructed by the Legal Services Commission
Respondent:	R A Pearce, instructed by Hannay Lawyers

REASONS FOR DECISION

1. When this discipline application, brought by the applicant Legal Services Commissioner under the Legal Profession Act 2007 (Qld) (“LPA