Legal Cheek
A trainee solicitor has been disqualified from the legal profession after misleading her firm about the reason for requesting annual leave.
Stephanie Merrill worked as a medical legal assistant at Lanyon Bowdler’s Shrewsbury office for two years before beginning her training contract in September 2022.
Less than three weeks into her training, on 23 September, Merrill requested annual leave for 3 October, claiming that she needed to accompany a relative to a hospital appointment.
But according to a decision notice published by the regulator, the firm later discovered that, on the same date, Cheshire East Council had secured a court injunction against the trainee for planning breaches on the land she occupied.
The firm launched an investigation into the reason Merrill had taken annual leave. The rookie signed a statement of truth explaining that she only found out about the court hearing after agreeing to take her relative to the hospital, which was the reason for her requesting time off in the first place.
She explained that she had only decided on 2 October to attend the court hearing and informed her relative on the same day that she could no longer accompany them to the hospital.
Doubling down, Merrill repeated this account during a disciplinary hearing and provided a copy of a hospital letter addressed to her relative, confirming the details of their appointment on 3 October.
Trainee solicitor disqualified for misleading firm about reasons for taking annual leave