Australia - The Lawyer X (Nicola Gobbo) scandal

[S.J.B.]

The Nicola Gobbo, Lawyer X scandal explained
Tammy Mills
The Age
November 30th, 2020

The revelation in March 2019 that a former gangland barrister called Nicola Gobbo was also a police informer was a legal scandal like no other – one that threatened the foundations of the state's criminal justice system and some of Victoria Police's most celebrated convictions.

The scandal, unfolding largely in secret and shrouded by suppression orders, took almost a decade to play out until the Director of Public Prosecutions finally decided Ms Gobbo's former clients had a right to know that she might have informed on them, breaching her duties as their lawyer.

The police fought for years in the courts to try to keep her name from public disclosure. They took the case all the way to the High Court, which found in December 2018 that Victoria Police’s conduct in using her as a confidential informer was "reprehensible" and had corrupted prosecutions.

It left Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews with no choice but to call a royal commission into the police's handling of Ms Gobbo and other informers.

Thousands of news stories and millions of dollars later, two convicted criminals released and many others launching appeals, now the royal commission has handed down its final report.

Read the full story here.

 

[S.J.B.]

Tony Mokbel conviction quashed as fallout from Lawyer X scandal rumbles on
Nino Bucci
The Guardian
December 15th, 2020

Little time was wasted on pleasantries during the first meeting between the gangland lawyer Nicola Gobbo and the police officers who were handling her as an informant in 2005.

“Tell us everything you know about Tony Mokbel,” was how the police handler known as Mr White started the meeting.

...

The issue, as was exposed at yet another court hearing on Tuesday, was that she should not have told police, given that she was the lawyer of choice for Mokbel and those in his drug empire.

Fifteen years after the meeting, and 20 years after Mokbel allegedly bankrolled a shipment of more than $750,000 worth of cocaine from Mexico, his conviction for being involved in that importation has been set aside in the Victorian court of appeal.

Lawyers for the commonwealth director of public prosecutions say they would not seek a retrial.

Read the full story here.

 

[S.J.B.]

What a mess. This just goes to show how much damage a single unethical actor can do in the criminal justice system. This has got to be the worst example I've come across since Annie Dookhan.

The courts were right not to give her the privilege of privacy usually extended to informants. Now she will never work as a lawyer again and will likely spend the rest of her life in hiding.

 

[EmmettMonroe]

The whole Nicola Gobbo situation sounds pretty murky! It's hard to know who to trust when lawyers themselves are allegedly involved in wrongdoing.
This whole thing makes me wonder if whistleblowers within the legal system are even protected. If someone tries to expose corruption, shouldn't they be able to do so safely? Seems like things are set up to favor the powerful, not the people trying to shed light on wrongdoing.

Are there any legal eagles here who can explain how whistleblower protections work in Australia? Especially for those within the legal system itself? Because from this outsider's perspective, it seems like a real David vs. Goliath situation.

On a side note, I came across this website (https://federal-lawyer.com/whistleblower-lawyers/pharmaceutical/) focused on whistleblowers in the pharmaceutical industry. Made me wonder if there are similar resources for legal whistleblowers in Australia.