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An in-house solicitor who falsely explained her failure to engage with a regulatory investigation has been struck off, with the misconduct arising in the wake of convictions for drink-driving and driving without insurance.
A UK in-house solicitor has been struck off after a pattern of deception was uncovered, with the lawyer admitting she misled the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) over delays in responding to an investigation and later altering emails sent to her employer in an attempt to conceal her conduct.
The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) heard that in 2023, Louisa Clapton was stopped by police following a collision and subsequently pleaded guilty to drink-driving and driving without insurance.
Following her conviction, Clapton promptly notified the SRA, which opened an investigation and suspended the automatic renewal of her practising certificate pending further inquiries.
However, between March and April 2024, an SRA investigator repeatedly requested documents and information relating to the conviction, with three emails sent going unanswered.
After the final follow-up email, she responded later that day to the investigation, stating she was “very unwell with an infection and only just recovered”, and said she had “all of the materials ready as requested and will send them through tomorrow”.
Clapton didn’t respond and failed to provide the requested documents.
The tribunal heard that nearly two weeks later, Clapton told the legal regulator she had not responded to requests for information because she was away from work caring for her father after he suffered a heart attack, and said she would be returning to the office the following day.
It was later uncovered that the heart attack had occurred two months earlier and that Clapton had continued attending the office regularly while the SRA was repeatedly seeking the information.
Employer records also showed she had been present in the office on several occasions during the period the regulator was making its requests.
It was not until over a month later that she eventually provided the requested emails to the SRA investigator.
Matters escalated a month later when the SRA informed Clapton it would investigate her conduct in relation to the convictions, prompting her to notify her line manager, Bethany Walker, of the decision.
Following Walker’s request for her correspondence with the SRA regarding the conduct investigation, Clapton sent a “covering email” that had been altered to remove references to her being away from work and a line stating that she had been unwell with an infection.
References to her being unwell with an infection were removed, while other references to concerns about her father’s medical condition were shortened and amended to omit specific timing.
During a disciplinary investigation meeting with Walker, Clapton accepted she had given an inaccurate account and attempted to mislead her employer by altering emails said to have been sent to the SRA.
She was suspended pending a disciplinary investigation before resigning on 20 July 2024.
The tribunal heard that in mitigation, Clapton said she had notified the SRA on the day of her conviction, made an early guilty plea and did not dispute the allegations, and had an unblemished record. However, the SRA did not accept these points.
In its judgment, the SDT found that Clapton knew the explanations she had provided to the regulator were “untrue” and that the emails sent to her employer were “misleading”, after deliberately altering them in an attempt to conceal her earlier account to the regulator.
Taking all of this into account, the tribunal ruled that the “only appropriate and proportionate sanction” was to strike her off the roll.
She has also been ordered to pay £7,548 (equivalent to over $14,000).
