Andrew Lynsey Jones
Allegation / charges
Dishonesty, Lack of Integrity, SRA Principles 2011
Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision
Andrew Lynsey Jones, a solicitor and owner/COLP/MLRO of MSP Legal Services LLP, was found to have made untrue and misleading statements over several years regarding the instruction of a barrister in Client A's partnership dispute. Between Feb 2012 and Sep 2015 he repeatedly told Client A he had retained/instructed Counsel when no barrister had been instructed; on 29 June 2012 he told the opposing party he had received Counsel's views; and on 20 Sep 2018 he made untrue statements to Client A's son about the listing of a hearing. He failed to progress the claim, failed to serve the claim form in time, and the Legal Ombudsman made findings against him. The Tribunal found all three allegations proved and found his conduct dishonest under the Ivey test. He was struck off the Roll and ordered to pay costs of £9,970.
Duties found breached:
Aggravating factors:
- Dishonesty over a prolonged period (approximately three years of misleading statements)
- Conduct repeated on multiple occasions to client, opposing party and client's son
- Failure to correct the misleading impression when given the opportunity
Mitigating factors:
- Significant bereavements of close family members affecting his judgment
- Expressed remorse and regret
- Cooperated with the investigation
- Client A received compensation following the Legal Ombudsman decision
- Did not seek to rely on personal circumstances to justify failings