Solicitor suspended for false 'great result' posts on Facebook

A solicitor who made a series of inaccurate Facebook boasts about court wins she never achieved has been suspended from practice.

Irina Schwab, who ran Schwab & Co Legal Services in Aylesbury, made a series of posts which she admitted were not true and designed to act as a marketing tool.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal heard that, for more than a year, Schwab posted inaccurate or misleading information suggesting she or her firm had successfully represented clients in court.

One post read: ‘Great result at Cambridge Magistrates Court! So pleased and proud to be able to represent our client, who eventually managed to prove her innocence!!!’

Another update heralded a ‘double win’ at Watford Family Court, while the firm also claimed to have represented a landlord at an eviction hearing at Colchester County Court and made a successful set aside application at Romford County Court.

Schwab said the posts were ‘pure marketing’ and accepted they were incorrect. She confirmed she had not attended any of the courts named on those dates and admitted the social media activity was ‘showing off’ that she was ‘doing some sort of activity and I’m being active’.

Schwab, admitted in 2016, ran the firm alongside her husband and was the sole shareholder. The firm also operated without Solicitors Regulation Authority authorisation but kept a client account balance coming to almost £88,000.

She said during her interview she had been receiving client funds in the client bank account since 2015. Asked if she had informed clients that their funds were being placed in an unregulated account, she claimed not to know it was unregulated, saying she thought the client account ‘would be the same whether it’s a builder opening a client account or somebody who has a client account, that means some money belonging to the client’.

In total, the firm conducted 911 separate matters from 2015 to 2020 on personal injury, criminal, family, administrative, business, immigration, conveyancing, civil litigation and commercial.

In mitigation, Schwab stressed she did not deliberately or knowingly breach any solicitor rules. She had been employed by the Crown Prosecution Service for 10 years before qualifying as a solicitor and said what happened was due to a ‘lack of understanding’ about the regulations she had to work under.

She agreed to be suspended from the roll for six months and to be subject to a two-year restriction order preventing her from managing any firm. She must also pay £15,000 SRA costs.