Lawyers with stars in their eyes are blurring the lines
“The pursuit of personal celebrity can affect lawyers just as it does everyone else. It’s very tempting to see your face in the evening news,” Michael Bradley, managing partner of Marque Lawyers said. “But it is quite a dangerous thing to do.”
In a string of recent high-profile cases solicitors have faced the media as public advocates for their clients, dealing with public relations avalanches, hitting back at spurious claims and even allegedly using the media for their own devises. In some cases lawyers have seen their status as experts in their fields skyrocket. Others have been left smarting. The rest of the profession, meanwhile, has raised its collective eyebrow.
Celebrated human rights lawyer Julian Burnside QC put it bluntly to Crikey: “I don’t like seeing litigation played out in media. I don’t approve at all of barristers speaking to the press about the merits of the case they’re working on at the time.”
This month the man at the centre of an AFL drugs scandal, Stephen Dank, had his solicitor Greg Stanton speak to media, and his words teetered on the line between legal facts and emotional rallying. He claimed his client was the victim of “spurious, tenuous and unsubstantiated” allegations, and that he stood “as a sacrificial lamb on the altar of sport which this country worships”. He labelled his client a “scapegoat”. The media lapped it up.
Lawyers appearing in the media is not a new construct; names like Chris Murphy and Stuart Littlemore are regularly in news copy. Burnside says it’s solicitors rather than barristers doing the spruiking: “I haven’t noticed any barristers running their cases through the media, although there seems to be an increasing tendency for solicitors to [do it]. And I think that’s regrettable.”
The distinction is important, he said: “The ethical principle is that since barristers have the privilege of standing before the court and trying to persuade the court about a case, if they start advocating in the media about the same case then it looks like they’re having a second bite. That’s why it’s wrong.” Solicitors don’t argue their case in court, “and so there is nothing ethically wrong with them advocating for their client in the public sphere. But I just think it’s regrettable.”
Having a lawyer present to speak to media “adds a little more credibility”, said Bradley. “But that is outweighed by the harm it does to the profession. The more it happens the less credible lawyers become … It undermines our professional integrity. There are rules around bringing the profession into disrepute,” he added, citing the recent case involving James Ashby and the former speaker Peter Slipper.
Michael Harmer, the high-profile litigator from Harmers Workplace Lawyers known for seeking out the media and aggressively pursuing claims against high-profile defendants, was slammed by Justice Steven Rares for his role in that case. He criticised Harmer for including damaging and irrelevant allegations in the originating process, which could subsequently be accessed by media, calling the case an abuse of process designed to inflict “significant public, reputational and political damage to Mr Slipper”.
“Judges ignore what’s in the media about the issues in a case. I don’t think they’re the least bit affected.”
It’s a precarious position to be in, Bradley says, and lawyers need to be careful when they stand between their clients and the flashing cameras. Involving the media, allowing them to weigh in on a case, to deliberately nurture public debate with the view to influencing the outcome, has ethical implications.
“Most lawyers look at the few who do these kinds of things and say ‘wow, I wouldn’t do that’. But it’s a trend that will continue to build,” said Bradley. “But there is always interest in the law and lawyers are in the position where they can say something interesting about it. It’s easy for the media to turn them into celebrities.”
In a third case, New South Wales police arrested MP Craig Thomson on fraud charges. His lawyer Chris McArdle and the police entered the spotlight after the arrest, with a battle of words that saw both get enormous amounts of media attention. Speaking on television and radio, McArdle slammed the media circus around the arrest, and worked hard to focus on legal facts when being interviewed.
Pressed to confirm Thomson’s political intentions, the lawyer told Sky News: “I am not his political adviser… nor is it my brief to have anything to do with that. I am his lawyer.” He criticised the police’s handling of the arrest, and said the media was being told more than his client.
“Judges ignore what’s in the media about the issues in a case,” Burnside said. “I don’t think they’re the least bit affected.”
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Categories: Australia, Players
Defence solicitors can stop defending their clients in the media when the police, prosecuting authorities and investigatory bodies stop smearing their clients in the media.
The police tipped off Channel 7 to Craig Thomson’s arrest and the Australian Crime Commission held a press conference to slur athletes, sports and their coaches with allegations which are so far unsubstantiated. Both were outrageous uses of the media to prejudice the community against people who would otherwise have a presumption of innocence.
by Gavin Moodie on Feb 21, 2013 at 1:46 pm
There should be only one celebrity lawyer/barrister: Cleaver Greene.
by zut alors on Feb 21, 2013 at 4:20 pm
It’s a good thing McCardle did speak out, it”s a good thing that Stephen Keim as a barrister gave the transcripts of Dr Haneef’s interview to the media.
It’s a good thing pro bono lawyers and barristers speak out loudly about the perfidy and illegal behaviour of the DIAC cowards and crazed government who cannot seem to stop locking up innocent people.
It’s not good when people like Harmer make unfounded accusations in public to destroy a reputation.
by shepherdmarilyn on Feb 21, 2013 at 6:26 pm