G&B Lawyers' Nathan Buckley with a letter from the Law Society proposing that he is suspended (Image: Supplied)

A lawyer has crowdfunded more than $10,000 overnight to challenge a move to suspend him from practicing law after the lawyers’ professional association filed a complaint about his crowdfunding anti-vaccine legal challenges.

The Council of the Law Society New South Wales has moved to suspend the practising certificate of G&B Lawyers partner Nathan Buckley until the end of June 2022, according to part of a letter published to the firm’s social media accounts. The Law Society of New South Wales declined to comment on individual proceedings. 

Last month, Crikey reported that the Council of the Law Society of NSW had made two complaints to the NSW Legal Services Commissioner about Buckley’s crowdfunded legal challenges and his statements on social media that were made after they had received a number of complaints from the public and other lawyers. 

The grounds for the proposed suspension included in the letter were not posted, but Buckley claims on his GoFundMe crowdfunding page that it’s “for speaking out against unlawful mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations, unlawful lockdowns and restrictions”.

So far, Buckley has raised $10,810 in the 13 hours since the GoFundMe page’s creation. This brings the total money he has crowdfunded for legal challenges to more than $850,000, including more than $100,000 sent directly to his bank account and not held in trust.

Buckley is one of a handful of lawyers and organisers who have collectively raised more than $1 million to challenge vaccine mandates and other COVID-19 public health restrictions, while also sharing COVID-19 misinformation. These online fundraisers, shared widely in anti-vaxxer and online conspiracy groups, have all been unsuccessful so far. 

Last week, Buckley was involved with an unsuccessful legal challenge against NSW vaccine mandates. Justice Robert Beech-Jones rejected all of the plaintiff’s arguments, including noting that the challenge misrepresented supporting evidence and made claims based on research that weren’t from reputable scientific journals. 

Following proceedings, the G&B Lawyers Twitter account falsely claimed that Justice Beech-Jones’s decision “basically said it is ok to kill anyone you like”, before responding in the affirmative to someone who asked if they could go on a rampage. 

Buckley is set to appear before the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal on Monday in an appeal against the Law Society of NSW after he was reprimanded in 2020 for acting unethically in the course of legal practice by sending correspondence which was threatening, abusive and/or discourteous.