A Brisbane solicitor is to be struck off the roll after he made blunders in two migration matters, then failed to respond to the regulator’s notices about them.
Matthew David McCormick was deemed permanently unfit to practise, in a 30-page Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT) decision delivered by Justice Williams on 26 August.
The discipline application by the Legal Services Commissioner (LSC) raised six charges: four of failing to deliver legal services competently, diligently and as promptly as reasonably possible; and two of failing to comply with a written notice issued by the LSC under section 443(3) of the Legal Profession Act 2007 (Qld) without reasonable excuse.
The charges stemmed from conduct between January 2021 and May 2023.
Mr McCormick did not take part in the proceedings and did not file any material in response to the application. The matter was decided on the papers.
Charge 1 related to Mr McCormick filing a visa for a client, then failing to notify the client that the visa had been rejected and that the client’s bridging visa was about to expire. The solicitor then failed to lodge an appeal as requested by his client, who had tried multiple times to contact him. The time limit for the appeal expired.
Charge 2 related to Mr McCormick’s failure to respond to the LSC’s notice regarding his conduct.
Charges 3, 4 and 5 related to his failure to file his clients’ residency application by the due date, failure to promptly provide them with a medical assessment document they requested, and failure to send to his clients all information and documents related to their case which they had requested when they advised that they no longer wanted to engage him.
Charge 6 related to Mr McCormick’s failure to respond to a second notice from the LSC regarding his conduct.
Charges 1, 3, 4 and 5 were characterised as unsatisfactory professional conduct, and charges 2 and 6 as professional misconduct.
The LSC contended that Mr McCormick’s conduct warranted his name being removed from the roll and that there was no evidence to suggest he would become a fit and proper person to be a legal practitioner.
It relied on factors including that the conduct was repeated and persistent; that Mr McCormick failed to deliver client documents upon request, failed to comply with deadlines, and failed to correspond with his clients; showed a pattern of “burying his head in the sand” in his dealings with the LSC and then QCAT; and showed a continuing lack of insight into his offending conduct.
Justice Willams found that in all the circumstances, Mr McCormick had shown that he was permanently unfit for legal practice.
“The protection of the public and general deterrence requires that the respondent’s name be removed from the roll of legal practitioners,” she said.
She ordered that the LSC and the affected clients file and serve any further affidavits and submissions related to possible compensation.
She also ordered that Mr McCormick pay the LSC’s costs.
Queensland Law Society was appointed as a receiver to the practitioner’s firm, McCormicks Law, in August 2021.
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