SDT: Solicitor knew what he was doing
A solicitor who lied to his law firm about having cancer and forged a medical report relating to it has been struck off.
The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) said Soham Nitin Panchamiya committed “multiple acts of dishonesty” over a period of almost two months.
Mr Panchamiya, a solicitor at US firm Reed Smith, admitted dishonesty but argued that there were “exceptional circumstances” meaning that he should not be struck off.
However, the SDT said: “His dishonesty was neither minor nor trivial; its seriousness increased with each instance of dishonesty undertaken.
“Mr Panchamiya had numerous opportunities to correct the false impression made before he was confronted by the firm.
“He did not do so. Instead, he compounded his initial lie with further acts of dishonesty, including taking the extraordinary step of falsifying medical evidence.”
Having examined “with care” a genuine medical report on the state of the solicitor’s mental health, the tribunal said it was not satisfied that Mr Panchamiya’s difficulties “meant that he did not know what he was doing”.
Nor did it demonstrate that “but for his difficulties, he would have acted differently”.
The tribunal found that “despite his mental health and other issues, Mr Panchamiya knew that his conduct was dishonest”.
Whilst the SDT was “sympathetic to Mr Panchamiya’s personal difficulties and mental health issues, they were not exceptional”.
The tribunal heard that the solicitor, admitted in 2017, was employed by Reed Smith from January to October 2019 and from October 2021 to January 2024.
He emailed his line manager on 22 September 2023 asking to take the following week off as annual leave because “unfortunately, my cancer is back and I’m not handling it very well”.
He went on: “There’s a lot of doctors’ appointments and I don’t think I’ll be able to focus on work while dealing with this news.”
After being told he could, he replied that he was being admitted to hospital the following day for surgery.
In early October, he told a HR manager that he was “technically clear of spine cancer, after surgery to remove a lump from his spine. Currently undergoing preventative chemo treatment”.
A few days later, he declined to share medical information with the firm, describing the cancer as a “blip” and said it would be “over by January”.
Later in the month he told his law firm he had “decided to stop treatment, so I am all good now”. He said at a meeting that cancer was “his thing to go through” and he had been treated with low-level radiation on his lower back.
On 19 October, Mr Panchamiya provided Reed Smith with a medical report that began: “Patient is a 31 year old male with multiple previous instances of what appeared to be early stage osteosarcoma [an aggressive form of bone cancer].
“Latest procedure on 22 September was reportedly successful. Preventative radiotherapy was strongly recommended by patient’s physician, patient started treatment but chose not to continue.”
The SDT said the HR manager had “concerns” as to the report’s authenticity due to errors such as inconsistent spellings of the doctor’s name, an incorrect licence number and formatting errors.
The HR manager contacted the doctor, who replied that he had assessed Mr Panchamiya on one occasion and found nothing wrong; he had not written the report.
Mr Panchamiya attended an investigation meeting with his line manager and the HR manager in mid-November, when he was suspended.
The solicitor admitted acting dishonestly. He was struck off and ordered to pay £22,000 in costs.
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