Fit and proper … Ticking the wrong box in practising certificate applications … It can happen to anyone … Concealing findings of public service misconduct … Helping consultants latch onto the public purse … Corruption report … NT Law Society protecting the patch … Ariana Haghighi reports 

In various applications for a practising ticket she told pork pies, ultimately landing her before the beady eyes of the authorities at the Law Society of the Northern Territory, who revoked her licence.

In 2017, David Addis, the Director-General of DPIRD, reported Heffernan to the WA Corruption and Crime Commission for “suspected serious misconduct”. 

She was accused of providing “misleading information” to a senior departmental wallah. 

Heffernan claimed she contacted relevant authorities at DPIRD for permission to use surplus closure costs to engage Peter Evans and Amber Russell. Evans and Russell were both former employees of the Potato Marketing Corporation. 

In response to queries about Evans’ contracted rate of pay she falsely stated it was lower, and over-inflated Russell’s level of experience. 

Heffernan also came under fire for including a student as an intern under a memorandum of understanding, falsely claiming he was enrolled in UWA Law when instead he studied Commerce at the entirely different institution, Curtin University.

Less than three months later, she turned up at the Northern Territory Law Society, signing an application for an unrestricted ticket. 

She ticked a box claiming she was a “fit and proper person” to hold the PC – in so doing failing to provide the material information of the disciplinary action against her. 

In cross-examination, Heffernan claimed this was irrelevant as the action in Western Australia was “finished”, which was not strictly speaking correct. 

In 2019, Heffernan renewed her NT practising certificate, again failing to disclose the departmental disciplinary brouhaha, including a draft report from the WA Crime and Corruption Commission with findings that Heffernan and the consultants she hired had misled auditors. 

When asked about this document, Heffernan claimed no knowledge at that time of the need for disclosure, but now realised it was better to “err on the side of caution [and] give [everything] to the Law Society”. 

It seems that Evans the potato marketer was paid a full redundancy of close to $400,000 then immediately hired as a consultant to the department at a cost of just under $100,000. 

The CCC draft report referred to sham arrangements entered into by Heffernan, including “an arrangement with a partner of Herbert Smith Freehills solicitors to circumvent the requirements of a government ordered public sector recruitment freeze”. 

By backdating a crucial engagement letter Heffernan arranged for Dr Malcolm Carr to avoid the freezing order and continue to work for the department on an agreed fee of about $106,000.  

In this 2022 appeal de novo, the NT Supremes determined that the appellant’s ticket should be cancelled. 

The court reminded everyone that this is not punitive, but protective of the public and to maintain a relationship of trust between lawyer and client. 

Justice Peter Barr found that Heffernan’s lack of candour and ignorance of disclosure obligations rendered her unfit. Appeal dismissed. 

Heffernan v Law Society of the Northern Territory