Disgraced Hastings barrister Sacha Beacham has been fined $1200 for drink driving, but has won her fight to keep her face out of the media.
Beacham, 39, appeared for sentence on her third conviction for the offence at the Auckland District Court yesterday.
Despite multiple applications from media to take her photograph in court, Judge Brooke Gibson ordered no photographs to be taken inside the courtroom.
Hawke's Bay Today has learnt the judge ruled there was insufficient public interest in the case and that any depiction of Beacham would be intrusive.
Yesterday's appearance was her second scheduled sentencing date after she failed to front in July after objecting to media applications to take photos of her in court.
Concerned about the way her 2000 S-Type Jaguar was being driven, police pulled her over on St George's Rd, near Havelock North, just after 2.35am on January 15.
She later blew 561mcg - well over the legal limit of 400mcg.
Judge Gibson said her case had attracted media attention because Beacham was a lawyer and came from a prominent Hastings family.
He said she had voluntarily gone through alcohol counselling and had entered a guilty plea at an early stage.
"It will probably be the last time a fine will be the response," the judge said. Despite legislation stating that on a third drink-drive conviction the court must impose a driving disqualification for more than one year, he disqualified her for only nine months.
Beacham, whose Hastings practice Beacham Law was a finalist in this year's Hastings City Business Awards, was previously convicted for drink-driving in 2002, where she recorded a blood-alcohol level of 112mg, and in 2007 with a breath level of 703mcg.
New Zealand Law Society complaints manager, Malcolm Ellis, said the society could not confirm if it was considering suspending her practising certificate.
"We can't comment on anything that relates to any individual," Mr Ellis said.
He said lawyers "suffered from the same frailties" as anyone else. "Just because they get caught does not mean they're bad lawyers."
Duncan Webb, a barrister and former ethics professor at the University of Canterbury's law school, said the offending would undoubtedly bring the profession into disrepute.
"It's certainly a poor look for anyone, let alone a lawyer, to be convicted three times for that offence," Mr Webb said.
Although this would have little bearing on the committee's decision.
"The question essentially is whether she's a fit and proper person to practice law," he said.
"Personally, I'd prefer to be represented by a competent lawyer with a drinking problem, than by an incompetent lawyer who's as sober as a judge. Competence is much more important than the behaviour of lawyers outside legal practice."
Media law barrister, Steven Price, said he found Judge Gibson's decision to deny camera coverage a bit surprising.
"It's for the judge's discretion of course, but that has to be balanced with the principles of open justice," Mr Price said.
Beacham, who was admitted to the bar in 2005 and appeared regularly as a defence lawyer in the Hastings District Court, withdrew from her role as duty solicitor after her third conviction in May, and has not received any new cases from Legal Aid Services.
She would not return calls last night.