A Melbourne lawyer urged an elderly former client to sign a will while in hospital that made him the beneficiary of 15% of her estate, and later made threats of physical violence to the state’s Legal Services Commissioner, a tribunal has found.
John O’Brien obtained more than $250,000 in 2019 from the estate of a 91-year-old widow who had a cognitive impairment when she signed the will drafted by her former lawyer, findings handed down in the Victorian civil and administrative tribunal last week found. The woman, referred to as M, died in October 2017 after being admitted to hospital months before.
