A team manager who misled a complaining client has been removed from the profession.
Christopher Harris, who worked for Admiral Law in Cardiff for 10 years, embellished attendance notes to hide the actual conversations he had with the complainant.
He was dismissed by the firm and has now been made subject to a Solicitors Regulation Authority order preventing him from working for any other regulated firm without first getting permission.
Harris, who managed the new client unit, spoke with the individual in December 2023 and agreed to escalate their concerns. This was not carried out.
The client followed up almost a month later chasing the matter and Harris misled them about the progress of the complaint.
He then created telephone attendance notes of both phonecalls with the client which were deliberately inaccurate as they did not reflect the true content of the calls. The SRA said this was an attempt to hide his failure to progress the complaint. He was dismissed in May 2024 following an internal investigation.
The SRA found his conduct to be dishonest and deemed him undesirable to be involved in a law firm.
The regulator added: ‘He was willing to mislead a client and falsify attendance notes in order to mislead colleagues rather than admit a mistake. A person willing to do this is not suitable to work in legal practice. If such conduct were to be repeated in future, it would pose a risk to clients and public trust.’
Harris agreed to pay £300 costs.
