Ever since the incredible story broke that former Minter Ellison partner Simon Alroe had been arrested for allegedly harassing a colleague, we immediately looked for reasons to support his cause. Like you, we read the following news (reported by our great pals at Roll on Friday) with disbelief:

say no!

A partner Minter Ellison has apparently been arrested for allegedly harassing a colleague. Simon Alroe, a partner in the firm’s Brisbane office, was bailed by the local Magistrate’s Court last week. He was ordered to have no contact with Trent Forno, a fellow Minter Ellison partner, or with Forno’s family, and banned from visiting the firm’s offices

Bit by bit, new details on the saga emerged. At the outset, we revealed that Trent Forno and Ken Horsley, individuals apparently known in the industry as “Horny Horsley” and “Porno Forno”, were apparently influential in the de-equitisation of their former partner Alroe. At the time, we were particularly troubled by the revelation that Trent Forno professes expertise in employment law. Presumably Porno Forno would be well versed in precisely how to enforce his employment rights in a manner to secure the de-equitisation of a disliked fellow partner. Primarily for this reason, we decided to side with Alroe in this major corporate dispute and chuckled slightly when we discovered that he was suing the firm for in excess of $15,000,000.00.

However, our support is weakened slightly by the following groundbreaking revelation received from an anonymous Minter Ellison spy (thanks, by the way!):

A Question on Notice (No: 769) to Mr Paul Lucas, Dep Premier & Health Minister, has been placed on Qld Parliament web site for 15th April, 2010, and it is as follows: “Is the Deputy Premier aware of allegations that solicitors representing Qld Health have fabricated reasons in order to obtain an innocent man’s psychiatric and medical records, without his knowledge, and deceived the Ombudsman and previous Health Minister, into believing they were ‘directly relevant’ to his wife’s medicolegal claim and, if so, will he support a public inquiry?

It might be of interest to Firmspy that the law firm is Minter Ellison (Brisbane), and the principal solicitor in question is Simon Alroe. Will Alroe ultimately end up on the news headlines yet again? Basically, lying in order to obtain records, if proven, is Fraud.

We have since checked the Qld parliament website and can confirm that the above question on notice was asked of Mr Paul Lucas earlier this month. While we cannot confirm whether the allegations about Alroe are true, it is worth considering how this news (if true) would effect the reputation of Minter Ellison in the market, After all, it would appear that it was under the auspices of his former firm that Alroe allegedly procured the confidential records and his Minters might thus be vicariously liable (if the allegations are true).

Are government authorities charged with protecting the private information of individuals entitled to expect lawyers to act truthfully when requesting access to that private info?

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