I cannot imagine a series of good faith actions that result in the scenario that everything in this property purchase was routine and above board.

To believe the face of the documents you have to believe that Julia Gillard and Ralph Blewitt were together some time on 4 February, 1993.

You have to believe that Julia Gillard met formally with Ralph Blewitt to take his instructions on his donation of a power of attorney to Bruce Wilson for the purchase of any property (unlimited) in Victoria.   Keep in mind Slater and Gordon has an operation in Perth which could have formally taken a power of attorney.   Even though she is a partner in Slater and Gordon, Miss Gillard was unable to find another witness to witness the donation, she was the only person available.

Having witnessed Ralph signing the Power of Attorney, Miss Gillard takes no copy of it.   She gives Ralph no copy of it.   Bruce Wilson the donee has no copy of it.   There is no copy on file, in fact there is no file or file notes about the reason for Blewitt's donation of the power of attorney.

Bruce and Miss Gillard go to an auction to bid on the property at 1/85 Kerr Street Fitzroy ostensibly on Ralph's behalf.   Ralph has a $74,000 mortgage on his $77,000 home in Perth.   We are being asked to believe that he was to fund the purchase of an investment property worth 3 times his own home's value.

Having successfully bid on the property, Bruce Wilson signs the contract of sale.   Neither Bruce  nor Miss Gillard produce the Power of Attorney document.   Wilson is unconcerned about Blewitt's ability to completely finance the purchase, given no-cooling off period at auction and no provision in the contract to make it subject to finance.  Miss Gillard is apparently untroubled by Blewitt's finances.

Slater and Gordon is said to have created the Power of Attorney on 4 February.   On 16 February Slater and Gordon through Olive Brosnahan asks the real estate agent for a copy of the POA produced by Slater and Gordon?   It is not forthcoming until after Wilson's return from Perth where Blewitt is.   It is first seen by anyone other than Miss Gillard at Slater and Gordon on 22 February and the first ever certified copies of it are made on 23 February.

Miss Gillard has tried to give the impression that her knowledge of Wilson's activities was very limited, she was deceived, she was terribly distressed when she discovered he'd been embezzling money, she had no suspicions prior to the discovery in August, 1995.   Right.   How many boyfriends have a subordinate working for them who is independently rich and who would donate a power of attorney to enable the purchase of any property, sight unseen in a state more than 1,000 kilometres away, then give that bloke the ability to incur a substantial series of liabilities on the donor's behalf without asking a single question?   Particularly when the boyfriend and the subordinate were the only two people in an "association" that was incorporated as a slush fund  by you?  And your work in setting up that slush fund was so secret that you couldn't open a file or send a bill for it.

I think lawyers have a duty not to be stupid or cavalier with their court-endorsed powers and privileges.

Keep in mind that Miss Gillard was terribly deceived by her criminal genius mastermind boyfriend who managed to conceal his activities from her.   He must have been very confident in his abilities because he had her involved in every step of this transaction, from the originating power of attorney to which she was the only witness, to the use of her firm's in-house financing arm to complete it.   She even provided a cover story to the firm's investigating partners - she said that it was plausible that Blewitt was a sophisticated property investor, when even a cursory examination of the firm's own files showed his income at just $47,000 for the year previous.

Gillard's name is all through the transaction.  When the certificate of coverage for insurance was not present in time for settlement, Gillard was given the task of chasing it up.   Here Olive's notes record conversations with Gillard and Ralph.

But the bank didn't send the insurance certificate to Ralph the ostensible owner.

Why would Julia who was being deceived by Bruce need to know the circumstances in which penalty interest would be paid by the sophisticated property investor Ralph?

Her services even ran to picking up and dropping off cheques from Ralph who was always available to send money, just not to know what he was being signed up for.   This is her handwriting on the note to Olive (the initials JEG were a bit of a giveaway).

But none of that counts for anything to Australia's incurious press.  

This accounts for everything.

"I did nothing wrong".