A lawyer who made two false statutory declarations to the Legal Services Board, and who falsified her employment record on two CVs provided to prospective employers, has been found guilty of misconduct by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
VCAT found Oakleigh-based lawyer, Ms Irene Adamakis, guilty of misconduct at common law after she falsely declared she had completed 18 months of supervised legal practice, as required of all new lawyers, when she had only completed seven.
Ms Adamakis had applied to the Board to remove the supervised legal practice condition from her practising certificate, thereby allowing her to work unsupervised. The two statutory declarations she provided to the Board in support of her application both proved to contain false statements. These included a claim that she had worked at one law firm under legal supervision when her work did not involve any legal work, that she had been employed up to a certain date at another firm when she had ceased employment 15 months earlier, and that she had worked with another firm where she had in fact never been employed.
VCAT also found Ms Adamakis guilty of a second charge of unsatisfactory professional conduct brought by the Commissioner relating to her failure to notify the Board of a change in employer. Ms Adamakis had not informed the Board that she had commenced employment with a new law firm, and of the subsequent termination of that employment three weeks later.
VCAT described Ms Adamakis’ conduct as being very serious and a ‘breach of her professional obligations of honesty and candour’.
Ms Adamakis did not attend the VCAT hearings. In her absence, VCAT reprimanded Ms Adamakis and ordered that she be banned from holding a practising certificate until November 2018. VCAT also ordered her to pay the Commissioner’s costs of $8,353.16.
For further information, download the VCAT Reasons and the Penalty Decision.