Haines racked up eight disciplinary offences – including a criminal conviction
The Lawyers and Conveyancers Disciplinary Tribunal has struck Quentin Stobart Haines off the roll of barristers and solicitors after he racked up eight disciplinary offences.
The offences included a criminal conviction, gross overcharging, misleading the court, representing a client in circumstances where he was conflicted, receiving client funds in his personal account, and the misappropriation of client funds. According to the tribunal, his conduct was on “the highest end of the misconduct spectrum”.
Haines pleaded guilty to two criminal charges of receiving commercial sexual services from underaged girls, who were 14 and 17. He was sentenced to home detention; his conduct in this matter reflected his fitness to practise and tendency to bring the profession into disrepute.
He also incurred three misconduct charges for his actions involving a client, M. Haines had been instructed to act for M in insolvency matters, and the engagement letter indicated that invoices would be issued every month.
Over the course of the near-two-year retainer, Haines took out three loans and named M as guarantor, with both agreeing that if Haines could not service the loans, M would. Haines advanced some monies from the loans to M as well; however, none of these arrangements were documented.
The night before M’s bankruptcy proceedings, Haines issued an invoice for legal fees amounting to $1m plus GST, reportedly for all work he conducted during the retainer. He had told M that accepting such an invoice would help M, since Haines would become a major creditor.
The tribunal determined that Haines had engaged in unsatisfactory conduct for his failure to properly record and update the terms of engagement. The misconduct charges arose from his charging of more than a fair and reasonable fee, his inflation of fees to mislead the court in the bankruptcy proceedings, and for representing M although they had entered into financial arrangements. Thus, he did not uphold the “fundamental precept of the fiduciary relationship owed by a lawyer to a client”.
Three more misconduct charges were levied against Haines for his conduct in relation to another client, C. C had engaged Haines to act on an insolvency issue and paid around $90,000 to his firm – as well as about $190,000 to Haines’ personal account, for which no invoices or receipts were issued. The personal payments included a $55,000 personal loan that Haines agreed to repay.
Thus, the three charges were for receiving client funds in a personal bank account against trust account regulations, failing to hold client funds on trust or use as instructed, and misappropriating client funds. The tribunal described Haines’ actions as “a reprehensible abuse of his client’s funds” that amounted to “disgraceful and dishonourable conduct”.
Haines’ charges fell into four specific categories: repeatedly acting despite a conflict of interest, dishonest misappropriation of client funds, lack of fidelity to the Court and conviction for serious criminal offending. An offence in one category could result in being struck off, and Haines had “the unfortunate distinction of having committed misconduct in all four”, the tribunal said. Thus, the tribunal determined that to protect the public, Haines must be struck off.
He was ordered to compensate C $25,000 plus interest – the maximum amount under the law – only if C was not paid the $55,000 loan amount. Haines was also ordered to reduce the fee he charged M to $603,750, including GST, as the amount was justified according to the High Court. However, the tribunal did not permit Haines to claim the entire amount and ordered him to cut it by 50%. Moreover, Haines was ordered to pay costs.
Haines was struck off in March 2024, but an appeal process delayed the release of the ruling, the tribunal said.
