Kirsten Tomlinson

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

Kirsten Tomlinson, a senior associate solicitor in the family law department at Irwin Mitchell LLP, sent a false/misleading email on 22 September 2023 to an unrepresented opposing party (Person B) stating that the client's application was at court and would remain there until he returned signed documents, when in fact no application had been made. On 26 September 2023 she emailed a junior colleague instructing her to continue misleading Person B, expressly acknowledging "he doesn't know we haven't issued...we just led him to believe that we did." She admitted all allegations and that her conduct was dishonest. The Tribunal, dealing with the matter on the papers by agreed outcome, found her admissions properly made and concluded that striking off was the only appropriate sanction given the deliberate and repeated dishonesty, with no exceptional circumstances. She was struck off the Roll and ordered to pay costs of £1,000.

Duties found breached:

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

Aggravating factors:

• Deliberate and repeated misconduct over two occasions
• Misled an unrepresented opposing party
• Attempted to involve and instruct a junior colleague to continue the deception
• Recklessness alleged as an aggravating feature in relation to allegation 1.1

Mitigating factors:

• 15-year previously unblemished career
• Positive character references
• Full admissions and cooperation
• Misconduct rectified by the firm immediately and case resolved by consent
• No financial loss to either party and no personal gain
• Genuine remorse