Workplace Lawyer’s Professional Misconduct Allegations Dismissed
Wednesday 26 June 2013 @ 11.48 a.m. | Industrial Law
The Full Federal Court has dismissed an Appeal from Harmers Workplace Lawyers that claimed a recent judgment had suggested professional misconduct on the part of the firm.
Harmers had represented Rebecca Richardson in a sexual harassment suit against her former employer, software company, Oracle. Despite winning her case, Richardson incurred the bulk of her own legal costs, which had reached over $220,000, as well as a high proportion of Oracle’s bill.
In his decision, Federal Court Justice Buchanan who said “At this point, whatever the merits of Ms Richardson’s claims, the proceedings would have been conducted solely for the financial benefit of her lawyers.” While Harmers construed this as implying misconduct on their part, the full Federal Court found that the statement was not suggesting that Harmers conducted the litigation on Richardson’s behalf solely for its own benefits.
The firm simply commented that it was happy for the clarification and will appeal the costs decision on behalf of Richardson.
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