Paul Batty is an infamous, fiery, NSW politician, who has risen to enormous popularity on a platform of discontent with 'traditional establishment' politics. He has been substantially inspired by comparable politicians in other jurisdictions. He is a frequent user of social media, which he uses liberally to endlessly promote his political brand, while aggressively criticizing every dimension of his political opponents' existence; his chief slogan and campaign promise is to 'take out the trash'. These comments often leave him in need of legal assistance, for which purpose he has retained the services of Speake & Freely Solicitors. Aadharsha is the principal solicitor assigned to Batty's matters. The following events take place in a particularly turbulent election period. Before his political career, Batty's various holdings, including Batty Tower and the Batty Corporation (of which he is the Chief Executive Officer), had been under investigation for a number of fraud- and tax-related charges. These investigations continued throughout the election period and became the subject of much of Batty's social media hostility. One such matter progressed to the Supreme Court, where, in a judgment on a preliminary evidentiary issue, Chief Justice Singh offered a leading judgment indicating that 'there is substantial evidence that Mr Batty's business empire has employed fraudulent techniques in its business practices.' Batty fired back immediately on social media, accusing the Chief Justice of being 'a corrupt woman' and a 'trash person'. This marked the beginning of a long-running trend of fierce criticism against members of the judiciary, and the Chief Justice in particular. Media attention looked also to Batty's lawyers for comment. At first, Aadharsha would refuse to comment on such matters; however, this kind of response incensed Batty, as he regarded it as a sign of weakness in his team, from whom he demanded a unified public front. Aadharsha knew her firm was very concerned to keep Batty's highly lucrative contract, so Aadharsha instead adopted a compromise: when asked such questions, she would return attention to Batty's positions on things. So, when next questioned about the capabilities of the Chief Justice, Aadharsha stated that 'I have no position either way. However, my client's position is that the Chief Justice is incompetent, fraudulent, and corrupt; exactly the kind of trash his campaign will get rid of.' A clip of this quote goes viral on social media, and is often edited to remove the opening section, 'I have no position either way. However, my client's position is that...' This distressed Aadharsha but satisfied Batty. A part of the allegations against Batty concern fraudulent misrepresentation of assets and corporate hierarchies which might have the effect of misleading investors, inspectors, and government offices, like the Australian Taxation Office. At one point, at Batty's insistence, an internal reshuffle of the Batty Corporation's structure sees him relinquish the CEO role to another director in the company. Batty is insistent, however, that he continue to be referred to as 'the Chief', as it has become a part of his campaign narrative. He becomes disagreeable any time someone fails to refer to him by this preferred terminology. Aadharsha successfully adapts to this preference and makes calling Batty 'the Chief' habitual in all internal files and correspondence, including her own social media pages and in email correspondence with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) in relation to litigation between the ATO and Batty. To defend against the large number of 'minor' charges and civil litigation that he is embroiled in, Batty introduces Aadharsha to Chihiro, a daughter-in-law of Batty's who happens to be a barrister, as a new member for the Batty legal team. Chihiro is a difficult person to work with, and happily speaks her mind when she thinks that other lawyers or staff around her are being incompetent. She is an expert on free speech and electoral law and is well-embedded in Batty's family-run political campaign, vigorously defending 'the Chief' on social media, and changing her personal tag to '@BattyLawyers'. Chihiro has successfully disincentivized a number of potential litigants coming against Batty by using social media to mock them, messaging the potential litigants (while exclaiming publicly to her numerous followers) 'Imagine the costs that all these idiots are going to have to pay when they lose!' When this is not enough to dissuade parties from suing Batty, Chihiro ceases to engage with opposing parties on social media; however, Chihiro still pays several of her younger cousins to keep up regular social media snipes and attacks against Batty's opponents, using a number of false names and accounts. To defend against the most serious of the charges against him, Batty wants to make a point of hiring the most prestigious barrister he can find and has Aadharsha find the best fit for his legal team. Eventually, Aadharsha settles on Koa, a specialist in corporate fraud, and Koa forms a retainer with Batty for ongoing representation. Batty is thrilled and tells Aadharsha privately that he thinks Koa is someone who stands a great chance of 'making it look like I didn't do any of that stuff.' Batty does, however, insist that Koa include Chihiro as a Junior in all legal matters. Koa accepts, though he insists that he will only be offering legal defences and cannot give any advice on how to avoid or subvert the law. Batty says that this isn't a problem - Chihiro's help on this point will be sufficient. Aadharsha eventually gets to know Batty's litigation strategy. When sued, Batty employs a strategy of slowing down litigation to the utmost by raising any plausible (and numerous implausible) defences, every one of which inspires great discussion on social media, with commenters mostly split 50-50 as to whether his proposed defences are available, or deeply mistaken. Batty also uses his public political platform to make allegations of impropriety which make the lives of non-aligned prosecutors and judges difficult, citing the slowness of the justice system, and the persistence of its prosecutors, as evidence of the 'deep corruption of the trash legal system.' Aadharsha later realizes that these incendiary public comments are a key feature of Batty's campaigning strategy, as his election campaign strategy will become that much more difficult if he is found liable for any offense, impropriety, or fraudulent conduct, before the conclusion of the elections. Meanwhile, Batty derives significant voter attention from his heroic martyrdom, in drawing attention to the number of ongoing cases that, and enemies who, are out to get him. Hence, his instructions to his legal team are very clear in this regard: he will consider it a failure of his legal team if any matter is accelerated and concluded sooner than is absolutely necessary. Koa is silent as to his thoughts on this approach, but nods at these instructions. Chihiro encourages this general strategy and makes the specific point that whenever the Batty legal team receives a notice from any source demanding immediate response, Batty can just ignore them, as they will then need to be followed up by further litigation, and this would be a good way to play for further time. Aadharsha often wonders if this overarching strategy is entirely appropriate but decides to go along with Koa and Chihiro on this, as they have more experience with litigation. As time goes on, and Batty's legal matters pile up. One tax fraud allegation, a criminal matter, reaches the Federal Court where, to Koa's amazement, Chihiro leads evidence from a Batty supporter, a leader of a fringe religious denomination, that: "Paul Batty is as honest and fair a person as I have ever met. There is no way he would commit fraud on the Australian public or the tax revenue!" Koa knows that statement to be untrue. At the end of the trial, where the charge against Batty was dismissed, Koa has a change of heart, and decides he wants out. He attempts to exit the relationship by returning the brief on further matters. Aadharsha inquires as to why. In a confidential email to Aadharsha headed 'without prejudice', Koa explains that he regards many of Batty's defence cases as unsustainable; that he does not like working with Chihiro; that he sincerely doubts that Batty will in any way listen to his advice to run his case a different way; and that he does not want to be caught on the losing side of a case. Koa expresses that he is particularly concerned for his long-term reputation, and states 'Simply to represent Batty risks bringing the profession into disrepute.' Aadharsha passes a broad summary of Koa's position onto Batty, who swiftly becomes incensed with Koa. Batty insists that Koa should continue to represent his numerous serious cases in court, and in the course of a behind-closed-doors argument with Aadharsha, Chihiro and Koa, shouts 'How am I supposed to get out of these charges if I don't have the best on my team?' This represents a turning point for the Batty Legal Team, after which Chihiro takes to sniping at Koa on social media using the '@BattyLawyers' tag, making comments about his use of a wheelchair (imitating Batty's very public miming of uncontrolled, flailing arms to ridicule those he considers weak) and speech patterns, and suggesting that he was 'secretly a trash person' and a burden on Batty's legal team. Koa does not respond well to these comments and starts using his own private social media accounts to defend his reputation, stating 'At least I have always been honest and respectful, unlike others who will use any tactic to win for their client.' Aadharsha is worried that this comment is directed at her; Chihiro, however, starts threatening on social media to bring complaints against Koa before the Bar Association of New South Wales. The Law Society of New South Wales and the Bar Association of New South Wales have been watching these various sagas unfold for a long time and have fielded a series of complaints from members of the public about Batty but have had no power to act as Batty is not a lawyer. However, when they start to see the communications from the Batty legal team on social media they decide to initiate complaints so as to ensure that Aadharsha, Chihiro and Koa are subjected to a full disciplinary accounting for their behaviour.

Advise Aadharsha, Chihiro, and Koa about the ethical dimensions of all of their actions. In your response, make specific reference to relevant case law and statute, and any possible disciplinary consequences that any of these lawyers might face. [Note: you are not to make any suggestions about the legal consequences of Batty's behaviour; you should confine your analysis to discussion of the behaviour of his lawyers.]