Niranjana Patel

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

The Tribunal found that on 29 January 2021, while an associate solicitor at Jackson Lees Group, Niranjana Patel created a letter to a client's landlord and backdated it to 12 January 2021 to make it appear work had been done when it had not, in response to a colleague's chaser email about her failure to progress client K's file. She then told her colleague and the client the letter had been sent on 12 January. The Tribunal rejected her account that she had merely dictated and viewed the letter, finding she created it at 11:08 on 29 January and manually altered the date. It found breaches of Principles 2, 4 and 5 and paragraph 1.4, expressly finding dishonesty under the Ivey test. Although dishonesty normally requires striking off, the Tribunal found exceptional circumstances (momentary, unplanned, response to pressure, marginal benefit, unblemished career) and imposed a 12-month suspension itself suspended for 24 months, plus agreed costs of £10,000.

Duties found breached:

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

Aggravating factors:

• Dishonesty found
• Respondent was an experienced solicitor (15-18 years PQE) in a senior leadership role managing three departments
• Conduct was deliberate
• Misled both a colleague and the client K

Mitigating factors:

• Isolated, momentary single-day incident, not pre-planned or calculated
• Unblemished and exemplary professional and regulatory history with no previous disciplinary findings
• Very marginal/no real benefit to the Respondent
• Little impact on the client
• Significant work pressure managing three departments and a very challenging work schedule
• Ill-health (migraines, stomach-ache) and personal circumstances including caring for her unwell mother
• Delay in bringing matter to Tribunal during which she practised without conditions or further conduct issues