A Pinsent Masons employee who managed to pretend for over a year that she was due to qualify as a solicitor has been sanctioned by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
Ketevan (or Katie) Nakaidze was apponted to a role in the firm's Finance & Projects Group in April 2022, the regulator said. She then ‘repeatedly let her employer believe that she was due to qualify as a solicitor'. She then maintained she was a newly qualified solicitor who was waiting for her practising certificate to be issued, when she was not.
The deception took place on five occasions up until August 2022. The SRA has now placed restrictions on where and how Nakaidze can work in an SRA-regulated firm.
An SRA judgment said the restriction was needed because 'it was undesirable for her to be involved in a legal practice without the SRA’s prior approval.'
The order imposed on Nakaidze means that, among other things, no solicitor shall employ or remunerate her in connection with her practice as a solicitor and no recognised body shall employ her.
Nakaidze was also ordered to pay the SRA’s costs of £600.
A spokesperson for Pinsent Masons, said: 'Ms Nakaidze originally joined Pinsent Masons as a paralegal, on the understanding that she was expecting to be admitted to the roll of solicitors England & Wales within a few weeks of starting at the firm.
'As part of our due diligence, we followed up with Ms Nakaidze on several occasions after her start date. However, it became clear that no application had been made to the SRA. As such, we took immediate action to remove Ms Nakaidze from her post and reported the incident to the SRA.'
