Signature: Solicitor thought she was helping her client
A veteran solicitor who falsified a client’s signature on a notice of severance as part of divorce proceedings after losing the original has been struck off.
Sally Gandon admitted what she had done and that she should leave the profession as a result.
Ms Gandon, 69, qualified in 1980 and was working as a locum solicitor at Surrey firm Goodhand & Forsythe at the time.
She was acting for ‘Person A’ in early 2020 on her divorce and advised that ownership of the marital home should be severed from a joint tenancy to tenants in common.
Person A signed a notice of severance in March 2020, only for Ms Gandon to realise three months later that it had been misplaced. She prepared a new notice, falsified the client’s signature, and sent it to the husband.
A fortnight later, the husband emailed Person A to say he agreed severance was the right course of action, “but as you have not signed the form, neither will I”.
It was only in July 2021 that Person A asked Ms Gandon to see the notice and then complained to the firm about the forged signature.
Ms Gandon admitted and apologised for what he had done, saying a secretary had not dealt with the original notice as she had requested.
Person A agreed that the firm would continue to act for her and signed a new notice of severance.
Goodhand & Forsythe took no disciplinary action but reported Ms Gandon to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). Her locum contract ended in March 2022.
In a statement of agreed facts and outcome, approved by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, the SRA said Ms Gandon admitted she had acted dishonestly and offered a “genuine and sincere” apology.
In mitigation, she said the misconduct had been “isolated and momentary” and that she was under “significant personal and emotional pressure at the time”, which contributed towards it.
She was “of the genuine belief that she was assisting the client who, at the time, was emotionally distressed”.
But Ms Gandon accepted she should be struck off. The SRA said: “There is a need to protect both the public and the reputation of the legal profession from future harm from the respondent by removing their ability to practise…
“The misconduct cannot be described as spontaneous, it was deliberate and planned to conceal the fact that the original document was lost.”
The tribunal agreed that a strike-off was the “only appropriate and proportionate sanction”
Ms Gandon also agreed to pay costs of £3,304.
Clare 
Such a shame that following a successful career she has ended up in disgrace. Sad but right decision.