The New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers Disciplinary Tribunal has suspended Kerry Noble Williams from legal practice for nine months commencing on 21 February 2020.

In November 2019 the Tribunal found Mr Williams guilty of professional misconduct under the Law Practitioners Act 1982. Mr Williams was charged under the legislation which preceded the Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006 because the transactions involved occurred before the current legislation came into force on 1 August 2008.

The Tribunal found that Mr Williams had been acting as a lawyer and not a trustee in a number of transactions which started after he was engaged in the late 1990s to assist a client with relationship property issues and preparation of a will. Several years later the client’s ex-husband purchased part of a company owned by Mr Williams and another, with Mr Williams retaining ownership of the other part. In 2004 the client engaged Mr Williams to establish a trust of which Mr Williams was sole trustee. Between then and 2008 Mr Williams was involved in a number of transactions where the Tribunal found he was not acting purely as a trustee but also as a lawyer.

The Tribunal said it adopted submissions by the prosecuting standards committee that Mr Williams’ conduct demonstrated an indifference to his obligations as a lawyer. “In respect of the undisclosed and unaddressed conflicts of interest, Mr Williams’ conduct can properly be described as self-dealing on a reasonably significant scale.”

The Tribunal found that Mr Williams’ conduct met the high threshold for constituting professional misconduct under the Law Practitioners Act 1982.