Natasha Janet Dionne Fairs

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

The Respondent, a Senior Associate solicitor at Irwin Mitchell LLP, admitted creating inaccurate, misleading and inflated time records between February 2020 and April 2023, recording far more time than actually worked on files where she knew the time would be written off (closed files or agreed costs). The Tribunal found her conduct dishonest, deliberate, calculated and sustained, breaching Principles 2, 4 and 5 and paragraph 1.4 of the Code. Although no direct harm to clients, colleagues received smaller fee allocations and the Firm's metrics, bonuses and promotion decisions were affected. The matter was resolved by agreed outcome on the papers. Finding no exceptional circumstances, the Tribunal struck her off the Roll and ordered costs of £5,200.

Duties found breached:

• Good faith and courtesy to colleagues
• Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank

Aggravating factors:

• Dishonesty
• Conduct deliberate, calculated and sustained over at least three years
• Planned course of action selecting files where time would be written off
• Experienced solicitor of almost twenty years and Senior Associate aware of regulatory obligations
• Conduct likely to have continued but for colleagues raising concerns
• Derived personal benefit through bonus and promotion
• Adverse impact on colleagues and the Firm

Mitigating factors:

• Full admissions and cooperation
• Genuine remorse and insight
• Significant personal pressures including serious illness and death of mother and home-schooling during pandemic
• No direct harm to clients
• High workload pressures and firm performance targets