Shivani Jegarajah

Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision

Barrister Shivani Jegarajah admitted four charges of professional misconduct after, on 11 September 2019, sending an email to a journalist (NewJurist) that inadvertently included attachments containing highly sensitive confidential documents relating to her immigration client, without his consent. The tribunal sentenced on the basis that the email was deliberate but the attachments were sent by mistake, amounting to recklessness. The charges included a breach of Core Duty 3 (failure to act with integrity), but the tribunal made no express finding of dishonesty. The conduct was assessed as moderate culpability and moderate harm (no actual harm to client but real risk of harm). The majority imposed a £10,000 fine plus £7,758 costs.

Duties found breached:

• No conflict between current clients
• Uphold public trust in the profession

Aggravating factors:

• Experienced barrister (called 1993), pupil supervisor and founder of own chambers, who understood importance of confidentiality
• Aggressive initial response to the BSB investigation
• Two previous disciplinary findings, one of which also involved a breach of confidentiality (2015 unauthorised access to a colleague's computer/email)

Mitigating factors:

• Sending of the attachments was not deliberate but a mistake (accepted by BSB)
• Admitted the charges (two days before and at the hearing)
• At the time she was in a passionate, emotional and stressed state
• Emotional and family difficulties faced at the time
• Genuine remorse and insight expressed