Solicitor Barry Roche of Australia; serial thief

The Law Society presented Christopher Roche with a law license in 1986.

The Bar Association of Queensland found Chris guilty of the following misconduct.

• Engaged in unsatisfactory professional conduct
• Charged clients costs and fees that were grossly excessive and unreasonable (thief)
• Billed clients $325 an hour for work done by staff members and unqualified clerk
• Billing of clients amounted to extortion
• Billed various client 15% interest on their outstanding bills
• Routinely charged clients $125 for establish a file even though the clients’ claim was taken over from another firm that had previously handled the matter
• In worker compensation claims charged and deducted fees from agreed sums recovered in those cases that violated statutory provision and without disclosing it to the clients
• Charged clients $325 an hour work performed by office secretary

As a consequence of his misconduct, the Patron Saints for Attorney Misfits sitting on the Queensland Bar punished Barry by gifting him with a complimentary 18-month suspension of his law license and ordered to pay $200,000 in costs.

As we speak (ca. June 2016), Barry practices with Watling Roche at 30 Dusk Street, in Kenmore, Queensland, Australia.