Farid El Diwany

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

The Respondent, a solicitor admitted in 1990, was found to have brought the profession into disrepute through two Norwegian convictions (2001 and 2003) for harassment of a former friend, Ms H, involving offensive letters, cards, a circulated 'report' and a website disclosing intimate personal details. He also failed to report the convictions to the SRA over many years and wrongly confirmed on practising certificate applications that he had nothing relevant to disclose. The Tribunal declined to go behind the foreign convictions, finding no exceptional circumstances despite accepting genuine and serious Islamophobic provocation. The Tribunal found a lack of integrity (but did not find dishonesty). Culpability was assessed as high and harm significant. Given his complete lack of insight and the website remaining live, the Tribunal ordered strike off and costs of £5,706.56. An appeal to the High Court (Saini J) was dismissed and permission to appeal refused by the Court of Appeal.

Duties found breached:

• Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank
• No conflict between current clients
• Self-report to the regulator
• No baseless or threatened misconduct report
• Good faith and courtesy to colleagues

Aggravating factors:

• Misconduct amounted to a criminal offence
• Conduct continued after first conviction giving rise to a second conviction
• Conduct was calculated, deliberate and repeated over an extended period
• Ms H was vulnerable, as the Respondent was aware
• Concealment - failed to declare convictions to regulator and wrongly confirmed nothing relevant to disclose when renewing practising certificate
• Ought to have known conduct breached his obligations
• Wide public dissemination of intimate private information about Ms H
• Website remained published contrary to court condition, 16 years later

Mitigating factors:

• Previously unblemished career of an experienced solicitor admitted 1990
• Strong personal mitigation - substantial and unpleasant Islamophobic provocation including hate mail and untrue press articles about him
• Genuine and strongly held sense of grievance