Will writer: Solicitor failed to ensure he stuck to conditions of employment
A solicitor who employed a will writer banned by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) from working for law firms without its permission has been suspended for a month.
The SRA said Oliver James Saxon employed Ben Moore after the SRA had imposed a section 43 order on him for accepting a £20,000 gift from an elderly client, without telling the law firm he was working for or advising the client to obtain independent legal advice.
A section 43 order means the person cannot work for an SRA-regulated firm without the regulator’s permission.
In an agreed outcome with Mr Saxon, approved by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, the solicitor also admitted failing to provide accurate information on an application form he submitted in July 2021 seeking the SRA’s permission to employ Mr Moore.
Mr Saxon, director and owner of Lincoln-based Tyto Law, said in the form the will writer had not done any work since joining in June 2021 or worked with the firm’s managers or staff.
In fact, Mr Moore had been working as a locum for over a month, submitting invoices to Tyto Law through an employment agency.
The SRA said a solicitor acting with integrity would not have provided “inaccurate and misleading information” on an application form addressed to their regulator which “he knew, or should reasonably have known” to be incorrect.
It was “of note” that Mr Saxon – who qualified in 2012 – signed the declaration confirming he had provided all relevant information and that it was “correct and complete”.
Mr Moore was made subject to the order under the Solicitors Act 1974 in May 2021 and worked as a temporary locum will writer at Tyto in June 2021. The SRA approved his employment at the firm in September that year, subject to a series of conditions.
These included that his work would be directly supervised by Mr Saxon, who would review all correspondence in and out, and ensure the will writer had no “direct contact” with clients.
However, Mr Moore was not based at the office, as stated in the application, but worked from home and was directly liaising with a client, Town and Country Law.
Mr Moore called another client in regard to a will and power of attorney, according to one attendance note, and held discussions with a third client, who wanted to leave £200,000 to his daughter.
During this time the will writer was emailing “from the email account of his consultancy business, Yorkshire Wills & Estate Planning”, to which Mr Saxon had no access.
The SRA said it overturned the decision to permit Mr Moore to work for Tyto Law in July 2023.
Mr Saxon admitted employing the will writer before the SRA had approved it and, as manager and COLP of Tyto Law, failing to ensure that the conditions imposed on his employment were met.
In non-agreed mitigation, he said he was not aware of the section 43 order when he first employed Mr Moore and applied to the SRA when he found out about it; he did not expect processing of the application to take so long and had anticipated it being approved.
Mr Saxon accepted that some of the information he gave to the SRA was wrong but said he did not “deliberately set out to mislead the SRA”. No client had been “negatively affected” by his misconduct, which was “an isolated instance and happened over a short period of time”.
Mr Saxon was also ordered to pay £4,800 in costs.
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