When solicitors brief Counsel, whether it be for a hearing or to provide an advice/opinion, they are entrusting their client’s case to that Counsel. It is unlikely that a solicitor ever checks to ensure that Counsel is in fact entitled to practise. In a Division 1, first instance decision of Schnur & Urbina [2024] FedCFamC1F 374, the Court was required to deal with such an issue.
In Ogilvie & Farnam [2024] FedCFamC2F 793 the Court made Interlocutory Orders restraining the Husband from instructing a particular law firm to act for him in the proceedings before the Court, as his ‘intimate partner’, Ms P, was a partner of that firm. The Wife sought the injunction to cover the entire firm and not just Ms P. That legal practitioner had acted for the husband for some two years. It was not disclosed at what point she became the Husband’s ‘intimate partner’ however, the evidence was that the Wife only became aware of the relationship seven weeks prior to filing her Application in a Proceeding.
When solicitors brief Counsel, whether it be for a hearing or to provide an advice/opinion, they are entrusting their client’s case to that Counsel. It is unlikely that a solicitor ever checks to ensure that Counsel is in fact entitled to practise. In a Division 1, first instance decision of Schnur & Urbina [2024] FedCFamC1F 374, the Court was required to deal with such an issue.
In Ogilvie & Farnam [2024] FedCFamC2F 793 the Court made Interlocutory Orders restraining the Husband from instructing a particular law firm to act for him in the proceedings before the Court, as his ‘intimate partner’, Ms P, was a partner of that firm. The Wife sought the injunction to cover the entire firm and not just Ms P. That legal practitioner had acted for the husband for some two years. It was not disclosed at what point she became the Husband’s ‘intimate partner’ however, the evidence was that the Wife only became aware of the relationship seven weeks prior to filing her Application in a Proceeding.
