Email: Fee-earner sent fake confirmation of accreditation
A fee-earner has been banned for misleading her firm into thinking that her membership of the Law Society’s mental health accreditation scheme had been renewed.
Poppy Phipps sent a colleague an email purportedly from the Law Society, which she had altered to show that she had been reaccredited.
She also completed Legal Aid Agency supervisor standard and declaration forms saying she was accredited.
Ms Phipps, who worked at Cornwall firm Coodes as a mental health executive, has been made subject to a section 43 order by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), meaning she cannot work for a law firm in future without its permission.
According to a regulatory settlement agreement with the SRA, she became a member of the accreditation scheme on 1 April 2018 and she joined Coodes in July 2019.
Her accreditation expired on 31 March 2021, at which time she was on a period of absence from the firm. Ms Phipps said she contacted the Law Society in July 2021 and was told it could be renewed upon her return to work.
She told the SRA that she submitted the application that month but needed to provide additional information, which she said she sent but which the Law Society has no record of receiving.
She said she contacted the Law Society in December 2021 and August 2022 to request a copy of her accreditation certificate. It was only in March 2024 that she sent the amended email and Ms Phipps resigned the same month during the firm’s internal investigation.
Ms Phipps admitted that she had been dishonest and that a section 43 was appropriate.
The agreement said: “She was in a senior role and held a position of trust within the firm which relied on her to act with honesty and integrity.
“The false information she provided could have been presented by the firm to the Legal Aid Agency who could also have been misled by her dishonest actions.
“Her conduct demonstrated a serious lack of judgment given her senior role and level of responsibility. There is a possibility that she may act in a similar manner in future, which could impact on clients, if she is involved in legal practice without the SRA’s prior consent.”
Ms Phipps is also to pay the SRA costs of £300.
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