Solicitor who misled clients 'to avoid a can of worms' struck off

A senior associate solicitor who misled clients to cover up sending them the wrong form has agreed to be removed from the roll.

Court of Protection specialist Kayleigh O’Donnell had told her firm, Essex practice Pinney Talfourd, that she had tried to avoid opening a ‘can of worms’ by admitting she had used an incorrect form to register a lasting power of attorney.

Instead, she had tried to suggest the Office of the Public Guardian had recently changed the registration process and asked the clients to sign the correct form instead.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal heard that O’Donnell, admitted in 2021, acted for two clients in relation to implementing an LPA. The registration process, amended in 2015, required a different form to be sent for clients to sign. 

O’Donnell had sent out the old form to be signed and the Office of the Public Guardian subsequently wrote to say the process could not be completed as the new form was missing.

She wrote to the clients saying the OPG had ‘changed their registration process’ and that ‘due to Covid delays they have only just informed me of this’. The letter enclosed the correct forms.

But following direct enquiries to the OPG, a client emailed O’Donnell’s managing partner saying the letter had ‘raised some suspicion’ and that there had been no recent change in the registration process.

Questioned by her firm, O’Donnell said she ‘probably should have been more upfront and stated I’d used the correct form’.

The tribunal heard that O’Donnell had made a similar mistake in relation to another client and again blamed the new registration process.

She was issued with a written warning but the matter was referred to the Solicitors Regulation Authority. She told the regulator she had not set out to maliciously deceive any client and was embarrassed about making ‘what was a minor error’.

Before the tribunal, the SRA submitted that O’Donnell must have known she was misleading the clients and that she had acted dishonestly and without integrity.

O’Donnell told the tribunal she was under considerable stress, professionally and personally, at the time of the misconduct, and that private client work during the pandemic was ‘incredibly challenging’. She added: ‘It is important that it be known that I deeply regret my actions. Although said actions did not cause any harm to the client and they did not suffer any loss financially.’

She agreed with the SRA to being struck off and paying £5,000 costs.