Employee steals $88k from small law firm

A Sydney law firm’s bookkeeper was found guilty of stealing more than $88,000, allegedly from employee salaries and office expenses.

Aspiring accountant Zhewen Li was barred from working in the legal profession after the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal found she stole a total of $88,324.73 from her former employer, Tahota Law.

The NSW Law Society’s council alleged the money was to be used for the Sydney firm’s “employee salaries and general office expenses”.

On top of the thefts, Li caused transfers of almost $35,000 between Tahota Law’s office and trust accounts without authorisation and created false entries into the practice’s payroll records.

Tribunal deputy president Stuart Westgarth and senior member Peter Moran said that had Li been an Australian legal practitioner, the behaviour would have amounted to professional misconduct.

“On the evidence presented, we are comfortably satisfied that the respondent is not a fit and proper person to be employed or paid in connection with the practice of law or to be involved in the management of a law practice,” Westgarth and Moran said.

The thefts went unnoticed until Li’s resignation in April 2022 and the firm’s engagement of external bookkeepers at NJ and Associates.

Together, the bookkeepers and firm unravelled the extent of the breaches, including an alleged variance of $6,895.01 that related to a total of nine transfers between the office and trust accounts.

When confronted, Li said she was “ashamed of herself”, felt she had ruined her life, and was “terrified of going to jail”.

The tribunal was told the stolen money was used to pay off debt.

Tahota Law and Li agreed to a settlement of $200,000, which she said was “an acceptance of responsibility of what she did”.

Li has since worked as an assistant accountant with a development and construction company and with a private tertiary education provider.

She said she started the CPA Australia course in 2020, and her career aspirations are to become a CPA and registered tax agent.

Despite the settlement and admissions of guilt, the NSW Law Society said Li’s conduct “demonstrates that she cannot be entrusted with [law firm] responsibilities and to do so would place the public at risk”.

The misconduct was “serious and substantial, as well as consistent”.

The case: The Council of the Law Society of New South Wales v Li [2025] NSWCATOD 114.