Slide into financial ruin … Prison … Tickling the trust account to stay afloat … Multiple instances of trust irregularities … Poker machines of no assistance … Ill-health … Doom … Max Shanahan reports 

Making for grim reading, in a post-GFC spiral of lost income, bad health, family problems, catastrophic investments and a debilitating pokies addiction, Green misappropriated almost a million dollars worth of trust monies from clients over almost four years. 

The hearing at which her debarment was confirmed came after Green was paroled from the big house after serving part of a sentence for dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception. 

Green’s deception first came to light in January 2017 after a Mr Nash complained to the Legal Services Commissioner about delays in receiving money owed to him by Green. 

The complaint was upheld with Green found to have acted dishonestly. A manager was appointed to her law shop. 

Sensing the net was closing in, Green admitted to a barrister friend that there was “a major shortfall in my trust accounts,” and asked that the Law Society be notified, and to help swindled clients make claims on the Fidelity Fund. 

Around the same time, the manager appointed to the practice following the Nash complaint found that trust reports were inaccurate and that there was a grand total of 14 cents remaining in the trust account. 

Green was ultimately arrested in January 2019, and convicted and sentenced in July 2020 to a prison term of two years and three months. The court found that between 2013-2017, Green misappropriated $987,252.86 held on trust in relation to five separate matters. 

The largest single misappropriation concerned $589,585.11 relating to a deceased estate. 

Despite “regular contact” from the executors of the estate, the money was not released, with Green making “various excuses” to explain their mysterious absence. 

A further $295,774.85 was misappropriated from money owed to a widow following the sale of her late husband’s farm. 

Three further sums in relation to a will, a family law matter, and the preparation of a non-existent expert report were misappropriated by Ms Green. 

The court’s sentencing remarks in the criminal matter, which were used as evidence in the disciplinary proceeding, painted a picture of Green’s unfortunate decline in the wake of financial difficulties first experienced during the GFC. 

During the global recession, “many clients owed her large sums of money that they were unable to or did not pay”. Green was forced to close her office and ran the practice from home, unable to afford any staff to assist her. 

Soon, she was forced to sell the family home, after which “everything changed for her”. 

The court found:

“[her] life was unravelling and she started to feel that she did not want to continue in the legal profession. It was at this time that she started to play the poker machines.” 

In a downward spiral of gambling addiction, ill health and further financial problems – including a lack of financial support from the father of her children and some ill-advised investment advice from family members – Green attempted to “gamble her way out” and began “juggling trust funds” to meet obligations and disguise the true state of her books. 

In addition to the conduct for which she was convicted, financial investigators found a further five instances in which Green failed to properly maintain trust records. 

After her release from prison, Green’s disbarment was little more than a formality. She did not oppose the order being sought by the Law Society for her removal from the jam roll. 

The remarks from Ward P, Kirk JA and Griffiths AJA were as expected, with Green’s “significant breaches of trust and serious dishonesty” establishing that she was not fit and proper to practice. 

Council of the Law Society of New South Wales v Green