Top tier law firm accused of quarantine negligence
Over $6.25 million worth of legal fees were accumulated by the Victorian Health Department during the hotel quarantine inquiry.
This is despite some legal advice provided by top tier law firm Minter Ellison not meeting legal professional standards.
This figure is expected to grow, with only a small number of invoices so far processed.
The $6.25 million relates to advice from MinterEllison, barristers’ fees and support for departmental lawyers, with the total legal spend by the Andrews government on the hotel quarantine inquiry coming in at around $7.7 million.
To put this in perspective, the cost of inquiry was $5.7 million.
The inquiry criticised the work done by Minter Ellison, specifically with regard to its failure to tender crucial emails during the inquiry.
As we reported by the Australian Financial Review, it was found this neglect “contributed to an extraordinary hearing of the investigation, orders for new evidence, and a delay to the eventual final report”.
The emails included correspondence with Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton that contradicted Professor Sutton’s written and oral testimony in relation to when he first learned that private security guards were being used in quarantine hotels.
Both MinterEllison and the Victorian Health Department justified the non-disclosure, arguing the email chain was not critical to the inquiry.
Inquiry chairman, Jennifer Coate rejected the argument in her final report.
While she agreed Professor Sutton had not “instructed” MinterEllison that the emails had no relevance to the inquiry, she also said the firm should not have given that impression.
In her final report she wrote, “As a very experienced law firm, MinterEllison would have been well aware of what the term ‘instructions’ means as between lawyers and clients.”
“It is well understood to mean ‘what your client is telling you to do’. Had MinterEllison not intended to convey that meaning, more care should have been taken to avoid that impression when preparing and settling MinterEllison’s correspondence.”
The firm was reported to the Victorian Legal Services Commissioner in October by Shadow attorney-general Ed O’Donohue over its non-disclosure of the emails.
The commissioner will decide whether or not to investigate the matter.
Irit Jackson, 3rd February 2021
