Michael William Freeman

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

The Respondent, an employee solicitor at Proskauer Rose (UK) LLP, failed to inform his firm that he had not attended seminars or sat the CPI examination for which the firm had paid, repeatedly told senior colleagues he had passed the exam (on at least five occasions), and produced a professional biography falsely stating he had passed the CPI exam. The Tribunal found all three allegations proved, including dishonesty under the Ivey test (the Outcome 8.4 element of allegation 1.3 was dismissed as the biography was not published). The Tribunal rejected arguments of exceptional circumstances based on workplace pressure, applying James, and struck the Respondent off the Roll, ordering costs of £9,423.

Duties found breached:

• Integrity
• Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank
• No conflict between current clients

Aggravating factors:

• Dishonesty proved on all allegations
• Conduct deliberate, calculated and repeated after initial spontaneous lapse
• Misconduct continued over a period of time
• Sought to conceal conduct through excuses about the certificate and discussing the difficulty of the exam paper
• Only truthful when he had no option but to tell the truth

Mitigating factors:

• Offered to reimburse the Firm for course fees
• Voluntarily self-reported to the SRA
• Displayed genuine insight
• Open and frank admissions made at an early stage
• Initial dishonest conduct was spontaneous