Law Society and judge deny graduate access to legal profession over ‘defects in character’

ECLIPSE celebrates this wonderful news, and thanks the Law Society, for recognising the conflict between practising law and breaking the law. A summary of the case is:

• A law graduate, referred to as ‘Mr Gold’, was denied entry to the legal profession due to character defects.

• The Law Society and High Court Justice Laura O’Gorman found him unfit, citing his history of alleged family violence and making of personalised attacks.

• Despite completing qualifications, his tendency to blame others and misuse legal processes also contributed to the High Court decision.

Too often there is a minimisation of family violence, in that it is a ‘behind closed doors issue’, a family matter and not the business of anyone else, especially an employer – well actually it is everyone’s business.

We all have a voice, and I have literally had contact with victims whose partners are practising lawyers, and the system is absolutely, without question being used against them. Let's support our system to be a safe place for our primary victims and victim-survivors to tread, not a place that presents a very real risk of further harm. 

The system should never be so malleable that it can be used to cause harm. With appropriate education about the unseen and often ignored aspects of coercive control and family violence, deficient systems can be mended.

You can read more on the New Zealand Herald