Five occasions
A Pinsent Masons paralegal who repeatedly misled the firm about her status as a newly qualified solicitor has been sanctioned by the regulator.
Ketevan (or Katie) Nakaidze worked in Pinsent Masons’ finance and projects group from April 2022 to August 2022, during which time she is said to have “dishonestly misled” the firm about her qualification status on five occasions.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) found that Nakaidze had repeatedly let the firm believe “she either would be or was a newly qualified solicitor who was waiting for her practising certificate to be issued”.
Nakaidze is now subject to a section 43 order, preventing her from working for a law firm without the SRA’s prior approval.
The regulator said her conduct was deemed “serious” because she “repeatedly and dishonestly” told the firm she was due to qualify and had applied for a practising certificate “when this was not true”.
A spokesperson for Pinsents told Legal Cheek: “Ms Nakaidze originally joined Pinsent Masons as a paralegal, on the understanding that she was expecting to be admitted to the roll of solicitors England & Wales within a few weeks of starting at the firm.”
“As part of our due diligence, we followed up with Ms Nakaidze on several occasions after her start date, the spokesperson continued. “However, it became clear that no application had been made to the SRA. As such, we took immediate action to remove Ms Nakaidze from her post and reported the incident to the SRA.”
Nakaidze was also ordered to pay the SRA’s costs of £600.