Code of conduct: Solicitors breached confidentiality rule
Two solicitors who took confidential client information from their former employers have been rebuked by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA).
Joanne Louise Jones and Michelle Chapman accepted the sanctions in separate regulatory settlement agreements but the law firm involved in both said they were connected.
In July 2022, Ms Jones moved from Huddersfield firm Eaton Smith – where she had been a private client solicitor for 18 months – to Bromleys in Ashton-under-Lyne.
The SRA said: “Upon leaving her employment with Eaton Smith, Ms Jones removed a substantial number of documents which contained client information without the permission or knowledge of the clients and/or Eaton Smith, and shared these with colleagues at Bromleys without proper reason.”
She admitted breaching client confidentiality and failing to uphold public trust.
In mitigation, Ms Jones said no harm was intended, that she made “a genuine error in judgement” and that any documents retained “were intended to be used in a professional setting only”.
The SRA decided that a rebuke was the appropriate sanction given that Ms Jones’s conduct was reckless but she had co-operated with the investigation, had shown insight and remorse, and there was both a low risk of repetition and no lasting or significant harm.
Ms Chapman, meanwhile, was employed as a private client solicitor by Bromleys between November 2022 and September 2023.
Upon leaving, “Ms Chapman removed a number of documents containing client information and shared these with an unrelated third party without the knowledge or permission of those clients and/or the firm”, the SRA recorded.
She admitted the same misconduct as Ms Jones, and in mitigation cited unspecified “personal circumstances during the time she left the firm”, and that she self-reported to the SRA.
The regulator referred to the same factors as with Ms Jones in deciding on a rebuke.
In a statement, Bromleys said: “This incident involved two highly irregular and connected events. We believe that one incident occurred before one of the solicitors involved had joined our firm and the other incident involved this solicitor passing material, without our knowledge, to another solicitor whilst they were both at our firm. Neither solicitor is now employed by Bromleys.
“We were made aware of the breach by a compliance firm acting on behalf of a law firm at which one of the solicitors is now employed, and after both solicitors involved had left our employment.
“The incident affected only a very small number of our clients. Each of them was contacted directly by us, and importantly, no client suffered any harm as a result.
“We cooperated fully with the SRA’s investigation into the individuals’ actions; no wrongdoing was found on the part of Bromleys.”
