Kiwi Christopher Patrick Comeskey seeks Sydney barrister admittance

Kiwi Christopher Patrick Comeskey seeks Sydney barrister admittance
Jonathan ChancellorDecember 7, 2020

Last year the Council of The New South Wales Bar Association resolved under s 48(1) of the Legal Profession Act 2004 that Christopher Patrick Comeskey’s application for the grant of a local practising certificate be refused.

It was on the basis that the bar council was not satisfied that Comeskey was a fit and proper person to hold a local practising certificate in Australia.

In November last year Christopher Comeskey filed an appeal in the Supreme Court of New South Wales which is set to shortly return its ruling.

He was a high profile New Zealand barrister, who now lives in Pymble.

He was described in the local press as sharp-suited, charming, and effortlessly eloquent - cutting a formidable media figure.

Comeskey first made headlines for defending colourful misfit, the meth-casualty property developer Mark Lyon. Lyon, initially part of Chase Corporation's development team, created Mission Corporation in the 1990s making him a millionaire who was regularly in court and jail over the past decade. Lyon, who was from the family which once ran the Goodman Fielder Wattie empire, had made $5 million by the time he was 25.

As New Zealand's most recognisable defence lawyer, Comeskey drove a Porsche and rode his Harley-Davidson through the streets around his Wellington home. 

"He ate salmon five days a week, collected antiques, and as a pilot, spoke of his plans to buy a plane for the weekly commute to his Auckland chambers," it was reported.

In 2010 the New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers Disciplinary Tribunal suspended him from the roll of Barristers and Solicitors of the High Court of New Zealand.

In late 2010 Comeskey indicated he would not return to NZ court work after his nine-month suspense, instead the former detective becoming a forensic crime consultant and undertake private investigation work.

But the last reference in the NZ press was in 2011 when he was working in the dental industry as an importer of cut-price dentures.

Jonathan Chancellor

Jonathan Chancellor is one of Australia's most respected property journalists, having been at the top of the game since the early 1980s. Jonathan co-founded the property industry website Property Observer and has written for national and international publications.

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