Accepting a role you know you are not equipped for

This digest relates to cases published by the respective regulators during week ending 11 August 2026 which have sufficient detail to allow us to comment.

Three allegations were admitted and proved. Over 16 years the respondent did not transfer the title into Client A’s name when directed to do so by the Office of the Public Guardian. In the earlier part of that timescale she did not put the tenancy on a formal footing and did not ensure that Client A benefited from the rent. From 2015 she also did not commence proceedings for breach of trust. The third allegation concerned 14 annual reports to the Office of the Public Guardian, each signed with a statement of truth and each known to be incomplete or inaccurate; an attached allegation of dishonesty was withdrawn before the hearing.

The property fell in value after Administrator A secured a mortgage against it. The respondent failed to ensure that Client A received the rent paid by the tenant.  The Tribunal recorded a finding which goes to the heart of this digest: the respondent accepted the position of deputy despite knowing that she did not have any relevant experience with which to exercise those functions responsibly.Competence mapping (SRA Statement of Solicitor Competence)

Competence and self awareness go to the heart of this case, competence A3a asks a solicitor to disclose when work is beyond their personal capability, and competence A2c asks them to evaluate accurately their strengths and limitations against the demands of their work. The facts leading to this decision are what the absence of both looks like over 16 years. Competence A3d, knowing when to seek expert advice, and competence A4c, spotting issues outside their expertise and taking appropriate action, describe the steps available at the outset and at every point afterwards.

The service delivery competences follow. Competence B7a requires relevant processes and procedures to be applied to progress the matter effectively, competence B7c requires the case to be brought to a conclusion, and competence D1c requires timescales to be met. A title still not transferred  after 16 years  engages all three. Competence C2d, taking reasonable steps to meet the service needs of clients in vulnerable circumstances, carries particular weight; the Tribunal treated Client A’s vulnerability as an aggravating factor.

The incomplete and inaccurate reports engage something different. Competence B1e requires information to be recorded and presented accurately and clearly. Reports to a supervisory body, signed with a statement of truth, are how a deputyship is checked from outside, and here that check failed 14 times . On the other side, the respondent brought the matter under her senior partner’s supervision in May 2015, which is competence A3c exercised late but exercised, and in September 2022 told the Office of the Public Guardian herself what had gone wrong.

Reassurance offered in place of registration

In SRA v Simon Langford (case number 12870-2025), heard on 3 July 2026, the Tribunal struck off a solicitor admitted in June 1979 who was the owner, manager and sole solicitor of a conveyancing practice, and who also held the roles of COLP, COFA, MLCO and MLRO. Five allegations were admitted and found proved, including that he had acted dishonestly in giving the false assurances about registration, and costs were summarily assessed at £45,630.

Instructed in April 2019 to act on a purchase for Mr and Mrs A and to register it, the solicitor completed the purchase in June 2019. The application to the Land Registry was rejected that August and nothing further was ever filed. Between November 2021 and November 2023, on up to seven occasions, he told the client he was awaiting the completed registration, that the application was being processed, and finally that the applications had been lodged. None of it was true, and the client established the real position from the Land Registry herself. In a second matter he did not respond to requisitions, leaving the buyers’ solicitors to send six emails over six months. In a third he undertook to register a lease extension within three days of completion and did not, despite 26 emails, 22 telephone calls and two letters. He then did not respond substantively to the regulator. The Tribunal found culpability high and mitigation very limited, recording that he had got himself into an organisational mess which he failed to deal with and then tried to conceal from his client.

Competence mapping (SRA Statement of Solicitor Competence)

Dealing with the service delivery competences first, competence B7a asks that relevant processes and procedures are applied to progress the matter effectively, and competence B7c that the transaction is brought to a conclusion. Registration is the step that makes a purchase legally protected for a buyer, and it never happened. Competence D1c, meeting timescales, competence D1d, monitoring and keeping others informed of progress, and competence D1f, paying appropriate attention to detail, describe the practice management underneath.

What turns delay into something else is competence A3b, recognising when they have made mistakes or are experiencing difficulties and taking appropriate action. The Tribunal’s own description, an organisational mess he then tried to conceal, is that competence failed seven times over. Competence C2i requires clients to be informed in a timely way of progress towards objectives, and competence C2f requires their expectations to be managed as to outcomes, risk and timescales; neither can be satisfied by a statement that is not true. Competence A1a and competence A1c, recognising ethical issues and following the SRA principles and rules, cover the undertaking and the failure to cooperate with the regulator, and competence D3a matters here because he held every compliance role in his own firm, so there was nobody else whose job it was to notice.

A hidden file, and an inappropriate request made of a colleague

In SRA v Demi Christine Perrin (case number 12883-2026) the Tribunal, by agreed outcome, struck off a solicitor admitted on 2 June 2022, some seven months before the conduct in question. She had joined the firm in August 2019, was offered a training contract and qualified into the family department; she was dismissed on 19 May 2023.

Two allegations were admitted. On 3 January 2023 she asked a colleague to hide the file of Client A, intending that the firm be prevented from discovering that she had not undertaken work on it. On 17 January 2023 she made false statements to the managing director about the work done and about the request to her colleague. Dishonesty was admitted. The Tribunal took into account the mitigation put forward on her behalf, including the circumstances relating to her mental health, found no exceptional circumstances, and struck her off. Having regard to her means, no order was made as to costs.

Competence mapping (SRA Statement of Solicitor Competence)

Competence A3b, recognising when they have made mistakes or are experiencing difficulties and taking appropriate action, is the competence this case turns on. A file with no work done on it is a problem, but it is a problem a firm can resolve if it hears about it swiftly. Competence A3c, seeking and making effective use of feedback, guidance and support where needed, describes the route that was available. Competence C3d, keeping colleagues informed of progress, including any risks or problems, is the same requirement expressed as a duty to others.

From there the ethical competences take over. Competence A1a requires solicitors to recognise ethical issues and exercise effective judgment, and competence A1b to understand and apply the ethical concepts which govern their role.  Competence D2a and competence B7a address the inactivity underneath it all.

Competence A1d, resisting pressure to condone, ignore or commit unethical behaviour, deserves a mention too, because a colleague was asked to conceal a file and that request put another person’s position in issue as well; that colleague took the action necessary but it probably still felt an uncomfortable thing to do.

I would not want this decision read only as a lesson about dishonesty. A solicitor seven months qualified, whose mental health was accepted as part of her mitigation, did not tell anybody that she was behind, nor does it seem that the firm identified it. The framework treats asking for help as a competence rather than an admission of failure, and A3b and A3c say so. The profession needs to do more to encourage people to speak up when they need support or have made mistakes, and more work is needed to understand why they do not.

Boundaries, and the people a solicitor works with

In SRA v Michael Peter Alexander (case number 12627-2024) the Tribunal struck off a solicitor admitted in October 1988. He admitted three allegations. Between April and May 2022 he sent messages by WhatsApp to a barrister instructed by his firm which were inappropriate, unwanted and sexually motivated, and continued after she repeatedly asked him to keep the communications professional.  Between 19 and 28 August 2023 he did the same to a woman he had approached on Facebook messenger about a possible role as his personal assistant, and between 28 February and 2 March 2024 sent inappropriate and unwanted, but not sexually explicit, messages to a third person on LinkedIn.

The Tribunal recorded the effect on each of the three women, including that the barrister returned all her work to the firm and stopped accepting cases from it, at a financial cost to her. It found the conduct deliberate, repeated and persistent, noted that the second and third courses of conduct began when he already knew he was under investigation, and concluded that a suspension would not be sufficient to protect the public or maintain confidence in the profession.

Competence mapping (SRA Statement of Solicitor Competence)

This is a section C case before it is anything else, and section C is headed working with other people. Competence C3a requires solicitors to treat others with courtesy and respect, and competence C1b and competence C1c, responding to individual characteristics sensitively and using the method and style of communication appropriate to the recipient, describe what was ignored each time a request to stop was made. Competence A1e, respecting diversity and acting fairly and inclusively, is the sub point the SRA singles out as pervading all areas of work, and competence A3b, recognising when they have made mistakes and taking appropriate action, is engaged by what happened after the first complaint, with this competence being ignored.

Client money, and whose liabilities it settles

In SRA v Julian (Julie) Condliffe (case number 12689-2024), following a four day hearing in June 2026, the Tribunal struck off a solicitor admitted in November 2012 and ordered costs of £47,939.48. The first two allegations arose outside legal practice. As sole director of a private property investment company she led three individuals to believe they were buying a residential property outright, took completion monies, a sourcing fee and a signed transfer form TR1, and never transferred the property into their names. She then told the regulator in February 2022, and the court in January 2023, that the arrangement had been a common law management tenancy with an option to purchase. That was found dishonest.

The later allegations arose in practice. As sole owner, COLP, COFA and MLRO of her own conveyancing firm, she caused or allowed client money to be held with a payments platform, outside a client account and not promptly returned. The firm was intervened into in January 2025.

Competence mapping (SRA Statement of Solicitor Competence)

Competence D3c, applying the rules of professional conduct to accounting and financial matters, is the obvious one, and it is worth saying in plain words what it requires: money held for a client is held for that client and nothing else, in an account the rules recognise, so that the client is protected. Competence A2d covers knowing the requirements about where client money may be held. Competence B1e, recording and presenting information accurately and clearly, is engaged by what was said to the regulator and then to the court; the Tribunal noted that the regulator is entitled to expect honest responses from the solicitors it investigates.

A decision with reporting restrictions

A second judgment about client money: In SRA v James Swead and John Szepietowski (case number 12472-2023) the Tribunal found that monies held for a commercial conveyancing client had been used without authority to pay a third party who claimed part of the firm’s fees, and struck both respondents off. A reporting restriction order is in force and an appeal to the High Court against the factual findings and costs is recorded, so I say nothing about its competence dimension while the findings are not final.

SRA regulatory disposals this week

13 SRA outcomes were published during week ending 11 August 2026. 12 carry no narrative on which competence can usefully be assessed: five interventions, four sets of conditions on practising certificates, and three notifications of decisions to bring proceedings before the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, which record allegations rather than findings. There were no regulatory settlement agreements and no anti money laundering penalties, which breaks the pattern of recent editions.

In the remaining disposal (Nancy Ballard), a solicitor was rebuked, with costs of £1,350, for failing to progress the timely administration and distribution of an estate for which she had been appointed sole executrix in her capacity as a solicitor. The client died in February 2019. There was an initial delay in obtaining the death certificate because the death had occurred in Iran. In January 2022 the Legal Ombudsman upheld a complaint of poor service by the sole beneficiary, finding that the estate had not been progressed and the beneficiary not communicated with. Probate was not applied for until around the end of May 2024, and as at 6 July 2025 distribution was only partially complete, some six years after the death. The decision records that the unexplained delays caused the sole beneficiary stress and anxiety, harm the SRA treated as real notwithstanding that it was emotional rather than financial. It also records a breach of paragraph 3.2 of the Code of Conduct for Solicitors, RELs and RFLs, which requires that the service provided to clients is competent and delivered in a timely manner, and of outcome 1.5 of the 2011 Handbook. A more serious sanction was not imposed because remedial action had been taken, the firm having updated its probate management process, and because there was no personal gain and no evidence of dishonesty. The solicitor appealed and the appeal was refused on 30 July 2026.

Competence mapping (SRA Statement of Solicitor Competence)

The competences engaged are B7a, applying processes and procedures to progress the matter effectively, B7c, bringing it to a conclusion, and D1c, meeting timescales. Competence C2i, informing clients in a timely way of progress towards objectives, and competence C2j, responding appropriately to clients’ concerns and complaints, are engaged by the Ombudsman’s findings about communication with the beneficiary. The decision also records that in an earlier matter the solicitor relied on recollection rather than the client file, which is competence A5c, evaluating the quality and reliability of information, and competence D2a, making effective use of information management systems.

Closing thoughts

There are no regulatory decisions from the Bar this week.

Two things connect this week’s decisions. The first (whether hard copy, electronic or both) is what a file is for. A file records what was done, when, and on whose instructions, and it is the only place from which anyone other than the fee earner can establish the full picture in order to properly act in the best interests of the client. Here a file was hidden because no work had been done on it; an application which would have completed a purchase was never re-lodged and the client told otherwise seven times; 14 annual reports said something other than what had happened; and a solicitor relied on memory rather than the file. What each client lost was not paperwork. It was a home left unregistered, a property that never reached the person it had been left to , and an  estate undistributed six years after a death. Competence D2, keep, use and maintain accurate, complete and clear records, is what makes every other competence capable of being evidenced, and the client carries the loss when it is not exercised.

The second is the limit of one’s own competence. Competence A3a asks a solicitor to disclose when work is beyond their personal capability, and competence A2c asks for an accurate evaluation of strengths and limitations against the demands of the work. A deputyship accepted without relevant experience, and a file left untouched by a solicitor seven months qualified, are the same competence going unexercised at opposite ends of a career. Both became a disciplinary matter because nobody was told. It is increasingly important that, as a profession, we understand why people do not speak up, and make speaking up both expected and as safe as possible.

Where practitioners are dealing with the stress of investigation or tribunal proceedings, LawCare‘s  free and confidential helpline, 0800 279 6888, remains available to anyone in the legal sector.

A lesson this week’s decisions teach: five of the six tribunal decisions ended in a strike off, and the one that did not is the case where the solicitor, late but of her own accord, told the body supervising her what had gone wrong.

Beyond Competence Limited, for information and educational purposes only. This digest does not constitute legal advice.