MMartin you quote referring to Julie Bishop: "Instead, she was a...

MMartin you quote referring to Julie Bishop: "Instead, she was a solicitor acting on instructions with the assistance of eminent legal counsel and within the boundaries of the law. Yet, like the AWU case, it highlights less attractive aspects of legal practice."

I could not imagine Ms Bishop acting without proper instructions from her client CSR and also acting on advice of senior SCs. Lawyers whether they practise corporate or criminal law may have to defend clients whose views and or conduct they do not approve of. This part of our legal system like it or not. I presume you are seeking to imply that Ms Bishop had acted improperly in her conduct of the case. If that is the case prove it. You can write to the WA legal board and complain that Ms Bishop had acted improperly in her conduct of that case. Wish you good luck on that. There were no suggestions of conflict or who was actually her client.

In comparison there can be questions asked of Ms Gillard's professional conduct at S+G. Every lawyer opens a file. Once you send a letter a file is opened (even if its your miscellaneous letters file). No professional rule demands that you charge your client for your professional services. So why no file? Serious questions remain about her conduct with the incorporation of that "slush" fund - her words remember. If it was a slush fund no lawyer would want to be complicit in its establishment. Lawyers have been jailed for less. If Ms Gillard had been asked to give advice whether the proposed conduct was legal or not then she would be acting professionally. We will not know until such time as that missing WA files discovered. The missing file doesnt really help Ms Gillard's professional conduct. The issue of whether Ms Gillard had validly signed Blewitt's POA is also of concern. She has failed to answer that question. It is not a question of rocket science. Blewitt was a good friend of Ms Gillard at that time. She may have witnessed many POA's but I think she would remember witnessing a document on behalf of a good friend. Who was Ms Gillard acting throughout all of this? Wilso, Blewitt or the AWU. All three at the sametime? No conflicts of ineterest? S+G weren't happy at that "exit" interview. I can go on.

There are serious doubts about Ms Gillard's professional conduct. Ms Gillard never returned to practice law after leaving S+G. As a former partner in a major industrial law firm I would have thought she would been a catch for a rival law firm seeking to bolster its industrial practice.

I don't think the same can be said of Ms Bishop's professional conduct. I believe that she would acted with absolute proprietary expected of a lawyer and one who was the senior managing partner of the WA branch of a major Australian law firm. I have no doubt if Ms Bishop left politics and wanted to return to the law there would be a queue of senior lawyers wanting her to join their firm.