The law society have a statutory duty to deal with two groups of persons – lawyers and incorporated law firms .
The first one is seemingly straight forward a lawyer gets a practicing certificate and is for that year a lawyer and is placed on the law societies register .
The law society also provides a page called “Find a Lawyer or Organisation” and by entering a name onto that search field and selecting “organisation” names come up.
Basic logic would have you think that the “organisations’ would be incorporated law firms but that is not so. The reality is that the organisation search is grossly deceptive, to such an extent that even the staff administering the register cannot tell you if these ” organisations “are incorporated law firms or not.
An incorporated law firm is defined as
incorporated law firm means, subject to sections 15 and 16, a company that—(a) provides to the public services that are, in relation to a lawyer, regulated services; and(b) has as its directors no persons other than lawyers who are actively involved in the provision by the body corporate of regulated services; and(c) has as its shareholders, in respect of shares that confer voting rights, no persons other than—(i) lawyers of the kind described in paragraph (b); or(ii) persons who are administrators of the estates of persons who, at the time of their death, were lawyers of the kind described in paragraph (b); and(d) has as its shareholders, in respect of shares that do not confer voting rights, no persons other than—(i) lawyers of the kind described in paragraph (b) (any 1 or more or each of whom may, but none of whom is required to, hold those shares as a trustee of a qualifying trust); or(ii) persons who are relatives of lawyers of the kind described in paragraph (b); or(iii) persons who are administrators of the estates of persons who, at the time of their death, were shareholders of the kind described in subparagraph (i) or subparagraph (ii)
the act then goes on to relies on section 21 Provision of legal services for the protection of legal services and states
(1) A person commits an offence who, not being a lawyer or an incorporated law firm,—(a) provides legal services in New Zealand; and(b) describes himself, herself, or itself as—(i) a lawyer; or(ii) a law practitioner; or(iii) a legal practitioner; or(iv) a barrister; or(v) a solicitor; or(vi) a barrister and solicitor; or(vii) an attorney-at-law; or(viii) counsel.
So does this mean that a firm which is not a law firm does not commit an offence if it provides legal services and
- cannot be identified as a person
- does not call itself lawyer, barrister etc as above.
section 22 Misleading descriptions
It is clear that this section is there for non lawyers who hold themselves out to be lawyers but what if a lawyer is holding a fictional company out to be a law firm. – section 23 does not give much support, it appears to exonerate actions as long as there is a lawyer involved somewhere in the process.
But Lawyers have rules too , they are enforced more or less through the law society . However the law society is frequently conflicted in their roles of membership organisation and a disciplinary body.
It is after all lawyers controlling their own and this too of deception has been part of a lawyers artillery for centuries so why should they give away a tool of deception ? It suits lawyers and the law society to be vague about law firms as this way they preserve their fidelity fund as no one can bring a claim against a fictional law firm.
The rules of conduct are found here You may be wondering why we have brought this issue up .. well it is for very good reason it is one of those twisty nasty tings which makes lawyers always right and you always wrong.. In our opinion it is Identity deception/fraud.
Our director engages a lawyer .. she met him in what she believed to be the offices of his law firm Equity law Barristers Limited , he sends away a staff member to complete the contract and a contract emerges in the name of Equity law Chambers .
The law practice is referred to as Equity law regularly in correspondence and the current web page at the time shows the People involved with what is referred to as Equity law.
Equity Law barristers Limited started its life as Equity law 2007 limited. there are no other companies on the companies register which bear the name “equity law ” and the company now known as Equity law barristers is shown as having been co directed by the the lawyers wife and she also held 50% shareholding of the company up until 16 November 2011 this means that by the legal definition of Incorporated law firm equity law barristers was not and could not have been an incorporated law firm at the time when it agreed , under a trading name to provide me with legal services.
The agreement was that Barristers from within the chambers supervised by the head of chambers, were to do the work . However the staff who worked on my matter were generally new graduates who had neither been admitted to the bar and therefore did not have a practicing certificate ( you will also find that the law society claims privacy when you ask who had a practicing certificate when )
Inquiries with the law society have complicated matters further , they tell me that Equity law barristers limited was an ” an incorporated barristers practice ” from November 2008 they will not go so far as to say if it was incorporated law firm and they will not say on what basis it is an incorporated law firm. – vagueness is protecting their fidelity fund.
On the other hand the court is very strict on identities a company is a separate legal identity from a person but here were have a situation where a company is using a trading name and the director has now claimed the trading name as his own. The law society in their wisdom made a decision naming the director of Equity law barristers limited and told him to reduce his invoices and refund our director. However he refused we now have a gigantic mess where by the incorporated barristers firm may not have been an incorporated law firm and could not have provided andy legal services, but because there was a lawyer hanging about in the side office it is not an offence.
Another point of interest with this law firm is that the shareholder and other director the Lawyers common law wife appears to have had her signature forged. But that wont matter either they will have some explanation for that like a sprained wrist .
It appears that the law applies strictly to us and loosely to lawyers .. that has to change.
This brings about massive identity issues and made us focus on the organizations which the law society lists.
Many of the ” law firms ” are just trading names, unidentified trading names
some of the limited liability companies listed do not qualify as Incorporated law firms because of the share holding issue.
Solicitors trust accounts which do have lawyers as directors and share holders are not incorporated law firms but would qualify on face value as such .
This whole area is a massive deception
Stewart & Associates Equity Law still appears on the ” organisation list” it is neither a company nor is it a firm as it only has one employee a lawyer who is not capable due to her lack of seniority to practice on her own account.
Also look at Brookfields and Brookfields – Wellington branch , who is it a trading name for ? it could be any of these or none.
It is time that the law society tidied up their ” find a lawyer data base. we the public should be able to go to the database and identify the law firms and the lawyers practicing in their own name.
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