As is explained in the first several pages of this web site, I conduct my business Fair Work Legal Advice as a paid agent, which is a title provided by the fair work system, including the Fair Work Act, to describe people who and businesses which offer paid advice and representation to members of the public about what might be called fair work and employment law matters, including the provision of advice and representation in cases before the Commission such as unfair dismissal and general protections contraventions for both employees and employers.
I am also a registered industrial agent under the Industrial Relations Act 1979 (Western Australia) and have been for well over 10 years.
Up until commencing this business in 2013 I was a lawyer who was fortunate enough to have had a wonderfully fulfilling legal career, practising mostly in various challenging forms of litigation and doing so as a senior member of two prominent and it might be said acclaimed law firms. I became chairman of the first and founder of the second. All of this is explained at the About tab of this web site.
In 2013 I established my current business, Fair Work Legal Advice, which has now operated for more than a decade with many forensic successes and is busy.
In the past twelve months or so the Fair Work Commission has conducted an inquiry into the conduct of persons who are not lawyers in proceedings being conducted in the Commission which I think it is fair to say was because of the conduct of some “paid agents” who are defined by the Fair Work Act as “in relation to a matter before the FWC, means an agent (other than a bargaining representative) who charges or receives a fee to represent a person in the matter”.
The reference to “paid agents” in the Act is a clear recognition and a statement by the Federal Parliament that persons other than lawyers are to be entitled to be chosen by parties to proceedings in the Commission as their representatives, as an alternative of course to choosing a member of the legal profession, also a right.
Unfortunately, and perhaps inevitably, the conduct of some paid agents who are not or have not been lawyers in recent years has apparently been appalling, both in the quality of the advice and representation and in too many cases apparently in their honesty and integrity to and treatment of their clients, particularly in relation to fees.
In 2013 I decided for entirely lifestyle reasons to retire from practising law and to become a registered industrial agent which entitles me to work as an adviser and advocate in the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission, and pretty soon I was receiving requests, including from the law firms, to assist and represent their clients there, which I did. It was a natural progression that I also began to receive requests to advise and represent clients in the Fair Work Commission as well. I was entitled to do so under the Act as a “paid agent” and the rest is history.
The President of the Fair Work Commission has today issued new rules and procedures for the Commission and paid agents to follow. The objectives, clearly, are to regulate the conduct of paid agents and given the sad conduct and treatment of clients apparently by some of them, it is not a moment too soon.
As always, I unhesitatingly and sincerely commit to always comply with the highest ethical standards of conduct as an absolute minimum of ethical and professional responsibility which includes a commitment to teat my clients as if I would if I was continuing to do so as a lawyer.
Here is a link to the Paid agents’ regulated minima of standards, which are very welcome.