A recent decision in the Supreme Court of New South Wales has restrained a man from using funds obtained from a client after finding him that he engaged in unqualified legal practice by falsely presenting himself to be a qualified lawyer and creating a fake legal practice, before taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from clients who entrusted him and his business with their legal affairs.
Dr Eftekharzadeh-Mashhadi and his wife Dr Pegah Meshkin Khod commenced civil proceedings against Trent Rogaris claiming the latter defrauded the pair of $456,093.84 by claiming to be a qualified legal practitioner practising under the law firm, Castle Law Group Pty Ltd.
The married couple engaged Mr Rogaris in relation to their purchase of a residence in Turramurra, in the norther suburbs of Sydney.
On 26 February 2025, the couple called Mr Rogaris to make enquiries about their transfer of $330,000 into a bank account they believed to be the trust account of Castle Law. On the same day, the couple received a call from a person claiming to be Mr Rogaris’ mother advising that he had been charged by police for an unrelated matter and was in custody.
On 28 February 2025, which was the day before the intended acquisition of the property, a person claiming to be from Castle Law contacted the couple to advise that settlement could not take place as settlement funds could not be verified by PEXA.
The couple then transferred further funds to ensure settlement could occur as scheduled.
For several weeks thereafter, Castle Law gave the couple various excuses as to why settlement could not take place, as well as why the transferred funds could not be refunded to them.
Mr Rogaris’ house of cards fell apart when further enquiries made clear he was not a qualified lawyer and Castle Law was not a registered legal practice.
In the result, the Supreme Court Justice made an order restraining Mr Rogaris and Castle Law from dealing with funds transferred by the couple.
The matter has now been referred to police and it is expected that Mr Rogaris will ultimately be charged with criminal offences that include obtaining a benefit by deception (also known as ‘general fraud’) and engaging in unqualified legal practice.
What is the penalty for engaging in unqualified legal practice in NSW?
Engaging in unqualified legal practice in New South Wales is an offence under section 10(1) of the Legal Profession Uniform Law (‘the Act’) which carries a maximum penalty of 2 years in prison and/or a find of 250 penalty units, which at the time of writing is $27,500.
To establish the offence, the prosecution must prove beyond reasonable doubt that:
- An entity engaged in legal practice, and
- The entity was not qualified to do so.
The Act further provides that an entity – whether it be a person or purported legal practice – is not entitled to obtain or recover funds in respect of anything it did in contravention of the offence.
Definitions
Section 6 of the Act contains the following definitions in relation to the offence.
Qualified entity
A ‘qualified entity’ is defined as:
(a) an Australian legal practitioner; or
(b) an incorporated or unincorporated body that is a practitioner, law firm, community legal service, or legal practice; or
(c) either:
(i) an Australian-registered foreign lawyer; or
- A professional who holds a current registration certificate granted under Part 3.4 of Uniform Law; or
- A professional who holds a current registration certificate or document acknowledging the registration of a Foreign Lawyer entitling the lawyer to practice foreign law, or
(ii) A foreign lawyer who is not an Australian-registered foreign lawyer but only to the extent that the foreign lawyer’s legal practice is limited to the practice of foreign law and is carried out by the applicable requirements of Part 3.4,
(d) An individual engaged in legal practice under the authority of a law of the Commonwealth or of a jurisdiction, other than this Law or the Uniform Rules, or
(e) An entity engaged in the legal practice of a kind specified in the Uniform Rules for the purposes of this definition, but only while the entity engages in the legal practice under any applicable requirements of the Uniform Rules.
Engaging in legal practice
To ‘engage in legal practice’ includes to practice law or providw legal services, but does not include engaging in policy work (which, without limitation, includes developing and commenting on legal policy).
Legal services
The definition of ‘legal services’ means work done, or business transacted, in the ordinary course of legal practice, and includes, but is not limited to, providing legal advice (whether written or verbal), drafting correspondences of a legal nature including advices to clients, letters to parties and prosecutors, preparatory legal work and attending court.
Exemptions from the prohibition against engaging in legal practice
Regulation 10 of the Legal Profession Uniform General Rules 2015 provides that the following are exempt from the prohibition on engaging in legal practice:
- a person carrying out conveyancing work in accordance with a licence in force under relevant jurisdictional legislation,
- a land agent performing work in respect of instruments the person is entitled to draw, fill up or prepare and to charge for, under a law of a jurisdiction or of the Commonwealth,
- an officer or employee of a government authority drawing instruments in the course of the person’s duty, otherwise than as parliamentary counsel, legislative counsel or legislative drafter (however described),
- an officer or employee of a government authority undertaking appearance work in courts or tribunals under the authority of a law of a jurisdiction or of the Commonwealth,
- any of the following:
(i) a public trustee (however named) of a jurisdiction,
(ii) a company that performs the functions of a public trustee of a jurisdiction,
(iii) a company performing trustee work on behalf of the government of a jurisdiction or the Commonwealth,
(iv) an officer, employee or member of staff of an entity referred to in subparagraph (i)-(i
But the exemption applies to those listed in subsection (e) to the extent that the person is performing work in the course of preparing a will or providing a related service or in the course of carrying out any other work involving or in connection with the administration of trusts, the estates of living or deceased persons or the affairs of living persons,
- an industrial organisation providing legal services, but only to the extent that:
(i) the legal services concerned are provided to members of the organisation, and
(ii) the legal services are not provided for fee, gain or reward to the organisation (other than standard membership fees), and
(iii) the legal services are provided by Australian legal practitioners, and
(iv) if any of the legal services are provided by an Australian legal practitioner whose Australian practising certificate is subject to a condition requiring the holder to engage in supervised legal practice only–those legal services are provided under the supervision of an Australian legal practitioner who is authorised to supervise legal practice by others.
An ‘industrial organisation’ is defined as an organisation (however described) that is registered or otherwise recognised under a law of the Commonwealth, a State or a Territory.
Uniform Law
Although the Act applies to New South Wales, it is important to be aware similar offences apply across Australia.
