A longtime and respected Napier lawyer whose firm was wrecked by the scams of his business partner has himself been struck off the roll of barristers and solicitors for his part in the demise.
Richard Hill, now 71, was a partner in the firm McKay Hill which specialised in property law and folded in 2010 after the discovery of offences by legal firm partner and fellow longtime Napier lawyer Gerald McKay, who in April last year was sentenced to four years' jail after unsuccessfully defending charges of theft, illegally using documents and a criminal breach of trust.
The Court of Appeal this year upheld Hill's conviction on a charge that he dishonestly converted client funds, as he tried to save the firm. He was in July 2016 sentenced to eight months' home detention and 100 hours' community work. Hill joins four other lawyers in Hawke's Bay who have been struck-off the roll in the last five years, including McKay, who is now 75 and who was struck-off in 2014.
The decision against him after facing disciplinary charges laid by the Hawke's Bay Standards Committee of the New Zealand Law Society was made on December 13 and announced by the Law Society yesterday. The tribunal ordered also ordered Hill to pay the society costs totalling $57,050.
Society president Kathryn Beck said the "situation" had been a long time coming, with an investigation started seven years and drawn out by the legal proceedings.
