WhatsApp: Barrister harassed ex-employee
A barrister who made illicit audio recordings of court hearings in family proceedings has been disbarred, after her second disciplinary tribunal appearance in five years.
Mariam Adel El-Sobky, who was called in 2001, also told a former employee that she would be better off in “a mental asylum”, comments which led to a successful employment tribunal claim against her.
The full details of the case have not yet been published, but according to the Bar Standards Board (BSB), she faced multiple allegations.
The first was that on at least three separate occasions in 2021, she made audio recordings of court hearings in family proceedings, without the consent of the parties or the judge, and then sent them to employees to transcribe.
Second, in July 2021, when she was due to attend an advocates’ meeting in advance of a five-day final hearing in care proceedings in which she was acting for the mother, she sent in her place someone who she knew was unqualified.
As a result, the other advocates felt unable to receive Ms El-Sobky’s client’s position or discuss the issues and were forced to reschedule the meeting to the morning of the trial.
Third, the tribunal found that she failed to keep the affairs of the client confidential, sending Child Maintenance Service appeal papers to the personal email address of a person she employed to help with the case without first asking them to sign a confidentiality agreement.
Finally, she was found to have harassed a former employee by sending messages to a group chat on WhatsApp in December 2021 “which related to, and sought to make fun of, the confidential mental health issues” of that person.
She described the employee as “a very sick young lady” and said that the “best place for you I think is a mental asylum. No access to internet or Wi-Fi and restraints lol”.
An employment tribunal in 2023 found that these comments amounted to harassment under section 26 of the Equality Act 2010.
The tribunal ordered a couple of suspensions but also a disbarment. The findings remain subject to appeal.
A BSB spokesperson said: “Ms El-Sobky failed to observe her duty to the court in the administration of justice. This behaviour falls far below the standards the public rightly expect of barristers. The decision to disbar reflects the seriousness of the misconduct in this case.”
We reported in 2021 [1] that Ms El-Sobky was reprimanded, fined £2,000 and ordered to shadow an experienced family law practitioner for six months after a tribunal found she had talked to the opposing lay client in the absence of their lawyer.
She had switched from criminal to family law and “was simply not on top” of the rules, it said.