Costly mistake
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.
The trainee solicitor was ultimately dismissed for gross misconduct, with the firm convinced she had attempted to mislead it about the reason for her annual leave request.
When the regulator became involved, Merrill eventually admitted to misleading the firm. She also admitted to providing it with an edited version of her relative’s appointment letter in which the date of the appointment had been changed to show it as being on 3 October rather than the true date of the appointment, 4 October.
The SRA found that Merrill’s conduct breached principles of honesty, integrity, and public trust. She was disqualified under section 99 of the Legal Services Act 2007, barring her from holding roles such as head of legal practice, head of finance, manager, or employee in any SRA-regulated law firm.
The SRA noted that Merrill’s actions undermined trust in the legal profession, making her “undesirable” to be involved in legal practice.
Merrill was also ordered to pay £600 in investigation costs.