Aspiring solicitor barred after accessing case study and model answers before Macfarlanes assessment day

“Prospective solicitor slammed by SRA after reading, interpreting and utilising information in documents that they had access to.”

One wonders whether this allegedly ‘confidential information’ was properly secured in the first place.

Did she not show gumption – perhaps bordering on an excess of zeal – by looking for the kind of answers that they wanted to see? So, she accessed a model answer. Don’t lawyers look for short-cuts and use precedents all the time?

Obviously, she went wrong by failing to admit what she’d done when challenged – or rather by lying about it. Had she simply refused to answer the question on the basis that doing so might incriminate her, that would, I suppose, have been the more lawyerly thing to do …… but they would still have escorted her to the exit.

LC: why are you not allowing my post criticising the firm here?

Are all of these other comments a joke? Even if the documents were accessible on the firm’s system it should have been obvious that (a) they were not intended for applicants to access, and (b) her accessing them would have given her an unfair advantage in the assessments (especially over other candidates who were not already working for the firm and so would not have had the opportunity to see the documents).

The fact that so many others think this was OK (or are at least defending it) is highly worrying. Her behaviour demonstrates a lack of integrity and people like her should rightly be excluded from the profession.

It is true that the SRA is both hypocritical and ineffective (Axion Ince, SQE, etc). The fix though is to make enforcement firmer and more consistent, rather than letting every wrongdoer off scot-free.