Allan Richard Morison Steele

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

The respondent solicitor was convicted in 2016 of a contravention of section 38(1) of the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010 (threatening or abusive behaviour) arising from a domestic incident with his wife in front of their three children. He was acquitted of an assault charge and admonished. The Law Society brought a professional misconduct complaint. The respondent denied committing the offence and sought to rebut the statutory presumption. The Tribunal held it could not be satisfied he had rebutted the presumption, so it took him to have committed the offence, but ultimately found that the conduct, while open to criticism, was not a serious and reprehensible departure from professional standards and did not raise any question of lack of integrity (and no dishonesty). It therefore found him NOT guilty of professional misconduct, remitted the matter to the Law Society for consideration of unsatisfactory professional conduct, and made no award of expenses.