Guy Andrew Adams

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

Guy Andrew Adams, an equity partner, Managing Partner and COFA at Pardoes Solicitors LLP, caused or allowed the firm to allocate employee and firm pension contributions to the office account (April 2019-July 2020) instead of paying the pension provider, failed to inform the SRA of the firm's financial situation and non-payment, and caused LAA client money to be retained in the office account beyond 14 days, resulting in a £7,737.02 client account shortfall. The Tribunal, on an agreed outcome, found the misconduct dishonest (as admitted), with high culpability and no exceptional circumstances. He was struck off the Roll and ordered to pay costs of £6,000 (inclusive of VAT).

Duties found breached:

• No improper communication with the court
• No improper use of client money
• Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank
• Report serious misconduct of others

Aggravating factors:

• Dishonesty (admitted)
• Misconduct was planned and deliberate
• Misconduct repeated over a prolonged period
• Motivated by financial gain
• High culpability; sole and direct control as COFA
• Caused serious harm to reputation of the profession

Mitigating factors:

• Some genuine insight shown through admissions (though full admission made at a very late stage)