An inexperienced solicitor who deleted a paragraph in a handover document after he failed to follow the instructions in it has been suspended from practice for two years. The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal found a lesser sanction for his admitted dishonesty was ‘fair and proportionate’ in a case which involved a ‘young solicitor making a foolish decision of short duration’.
Jack Alexander Williams, admitted in September 2020, was alleged, while in practice at Buckinghamshire firm Blaser Mills LLP, to have amended the electronic copy of an internal handover note by deleting the prompt to carry out capital gains tax mitigation with the intention and/or effect of misleading others into believing that no prompt had been included in the original handover note.
He was also alleged to have sent an email two days later which was misleading by failing to set out fully and/or accurately the circumstances that gave rise to a CGT liability to the estate of client A. Williams admitted the allegations against him.
In a meeting with the firm’s managing partner, he accepted his amendment of the handover and his failing on the file in regard to CGT liability ‘were stupid things to have done’. Williams was issued with a final written warning following an internal investigation. The firm referred the matter to the Solicitors Regulation Authority in November 2023.
In mitigation, the SDT was told that Williams was ‘immediately remorseful’, ‘he and the firm believed that he could learn from his mistakes’ and ‘it was significant that the firm had stood by him, not least in these proceedings’. Williams’ colleague, who had written the handover for her maternity leave cover, ‘held no bad feelings towards Mr Williams’.
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