Disgraced lawyer Nicola Gobbo has told the Lawyer X royal commission she "obviously" failed to keep a pledge to act with integrity in her legal career, as she delivered her first day of testimony to the inquiry.
Ms Gobbo is giving evidence this week from a secret location via videolink, however, only Commissioner Margaret McMurdo will be able to see her after Ms Gobbo's lawyers successfully made an application yesterday for her face not to be shown.
During today's evidence, Ms Gobbo was taken back to the beginnings of her legal career during her studies at the University of Melbourne, where she received her highest mark in a legal ethics subject.
But her career nearly ended before it began, after a partner who was living with her in a house she owned was arrested on drugs charges.
Counsel assisting, Chris Winneke QC, put to Ms Gobbo that she misled a board of examiners during her application to practise law when she provided a sworn statement claiming her association with the partner, Brian Wilson, only lasted four weeks.
He then quoted to Ms Gobbo sections of her affidavit, part of which read "my integrity and honesty will not be compromised, in accordance with the trust and privilege vested in me by the court, I will endeavour to be an upstanding member of the legal profession".
"Obviously there are, I have failed in that regard, because look where we are," Ms Gobbo said.
Here's how the first day of evidence unfolded.
