Jonathan Peter Durkin

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

The Respondent, managing partner of the Liverpool office of Prosperity Law LLP, created a Client Care Letter with appended Terms of Business on 30 January 2023 and backdated it to appear as though created/sent on 22 September 2020. He admitted breaches of Principles 2 and 5 and paragraph 1.4 of the Code, and accepted his conduct was reckless and lacked integrity, but denied dishonesty (maintaining he genuinely believed he was recreating a document that previously existed). The SRA was granted leave to withdraw the dishonesty allegation. The Tribunal rejected the initial proposed 3-month suspension as insufficient and the parties agreed a 12-month suspension. The Tribunal approved this and ordered costs of £24,885.

Duties found breached:

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

Aggravating factors:

• Conduct was reckless
• Position of seniority as a partner, Notary Public, and solicitor of over 10 years' experience

Mitigating factors:

• No actual loss to or impact on Client A
• Single instance of misconduct
• No prior regulatory history
• Early admissions and acceptance of breaches, demonstrating contrition and insight
• Accepted responsibility for his conduct
• Stressed, overworked, and dealing with personal issues at the relevant time