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On the cusp of becoming a solicitor, a paralegal has been barred from legal practice after forging client signatures, falsifying documents, and creating fake emails to conceal her misconduct.
A UK paralegal’s path to becoming a solicitor has been cut short after she was found to have forged client signatures, falsified documents, and attempted to deceive her employer.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) heard that, at the time of the misconduct, Nishaat Shamas Saeed had completed the academic stage of her legal training and was working as a senior paralegal at a London-based immigration firm.
The misconduct came to light while Saeed was handling a client’s UK immigration matter, with the SRA finding that her actions had a “serious detrimental impact” on the client’s application for an extension of leave to remain.
Over three days in February 2025, Saeed forged the signatures of a client and their sponsor on four immigration declaration documents, submitted the documents to the UK government and falsified an English language certificate.
But her attempts to cover up the errors went further. Saeed fabricated an email relating to the clients’ immigration matter in an attempt to mislead the firm into believing she had sent the correspondence to the client.
She also tampered with screenshots taken from her work laptop, using them to bolster the false impression that the email had been sent.
Saeed later admitted to the firm that she had forged the client’s and sponsor’s signatures after failing to send the declarations to them for completion before the application was submitted.
The SRA revealed that Saeed admitted to carrying out the misconduct in an attempt to “conceal her mistake” after failing to advise the client that they were required to obtain an English language test certificate for their immigration application.
After the firm launched an investigation, it uncovered the fabricated email Saeed had created to mislead the firm into believing she had sent the declaration forms, as well as tampered screenshots designed to make it appear that she had sent the email to the client.
Confronted with the evidence, Saeed admitted her conduct to the firm and accepted that she had “acted dishonestly”.
Before the misconduct came to light, Saeed was due to begin a training contract with the firm in June 2025. However, following its investigation, the firm dismissed her just days later.
The SRA ruled that the “serious nature” of Saeed’s conduct made it “undesirable” for her to engage in legal practice without regulatory approval.
The order prevents her from working in an SRA-regulated firm unless permission is granted by the regulator.
Alongside the restrictions, Saeed was ordered to pay the SRA’s costs of £600 (equivalent to approximately $1,149).
