Solicitor—Disciplinary proceedings—Sanction

Queen’s Bench Division, Administrative Court (London), Moore-Bick LJ, Cranston J, 5 December 2012

It is established law that if a solicitor is shown to have fallen below the required standards of integrity, probity and trustworthiness, an order for striking off may well be appropriate, even in the absence of proven dishonesty.

Ivan Krolick for the appellant. Giles Wheeler (instructed by Russell-Cooke LLP) for the respondent.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal found three allegations of professional misconduct proved against the appellant solicitor: (i) providing misleading publicity about a firm; (ii) allowing the same firm to be improperly described as a solicitors partnership when it was throughout a business carried on by her, even before she had been admitted to the Roll of Solicitors; and (iii) that she had given dishonest evidence to an employment tribunal before which she had appeared as a witness. The tribunal ordered that the appellant be struck off the Roll and pay a third