Lawyer X

By: Baarika Suresh

In an effort to try to bring certain legal cases to light, this is the 1st of a possible series of articles on cases that deal with legal ethics.

Cover of a book that was written about this case

A scandal like no other, Lawyer X was a royal commission in Victoria, Australia created to examine the actions of Nicola Gobbo and the Victorian police working as a lawyer and acting as a registered informer. The police fought hard to keep Gobbo’s identity a secret and she was a target for the clients she defended, but also did not want to jeopardize their high profile convictions. The scandal took many years to play out, and left the premier of the time, Daniel Andrews, with no choice but to call a royal commission into the events.

In response to the royal commission judgment by Ms. Margaret McMurdo it was revealed that Lawyer X received 3 million dollars plus other payments from Victoria Police for providing information about her clients whilst she was representing them. McMurdo found that police “tolerated bending the rules to help solve serious crime” and that the police claimed that the reason they waited to get legal advice on Gobbo was because “they did not want to be told they could not use Gobbo the way they intended”.

The fact that Gobbo was representing her clients while also informing about them clearly violates attorney client privilege, making most of the cases an unfair trial. She made a name for herself during the Melbourne gangland killings, but was first registered as an informer when she was just a law student, giving the police information about her drug dealer boyfriend/housemate. She was also a registered informer on a colleague who she claimed was laundering money.

This brings the question of ethics to mind: Where is the bar set that violating attorney client privilege is ok? In response to the royal commission, policies were discussed requiring those who might come into the possession of legally privileged information, to be approved by the Victoria Police ethics committee before being registered as an informer.

In total, the royal commission heard from 82 witnesses, including over 50 police officers during the 129 days of hearings. The full transcripts of the royal commission are available online.

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