Julie Margaret Holdaway

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

Julie Margaret Holdaway, a non-practising solicitor, was found to have given false statements about her employment status during a job interview with Kew Law LLP on 16 May 2019 (claiming she was still employed by her previous firm on £34,000 with one month's notice) and to have provided false information to a recruitment agency about her employment status, salary and reasons for leaving her previous firm, when in fact she had been dismissed in September 2018. The Tribunal found breaches of Principles 2 and 6 and expressly found dishonesty under the Ivey test. Finding no exceptional circumstances, the Tribunal struck her off the Roll and ordered her to pay costs of £2,000. The Respondent did not attend and the hearing proceeded in her absence.

Duties found breached:

• No taking unfair advantage
• Uphold public trust in the profession

Aggravating factors:

• Dishonesty found; conduct deliberate and calculated
• Misconduct persisted over a number of weeks
• Motivated by personal and financial self-interest
• Lack of genuine insight and little cooperation with the regulator

Mitigating factors:

• Solicitor of over twenty years' standing with previously unblemished record
• Explained she was too embarrassed to admit she had been out of work