Kevin Edwin Francis Gregory

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

Kevin Edwin Francis Gregory, an unqualified person employed/remunerated by solicitor David Charity of Mahoney Mea Solicitors, faced seven allegations under Section 43 of the Solicitors Act 1974. Allegation 1 (falsely representing himself as a solicitor/trainee/acting solicitor) was found made out but the Tribunal found his conduct reckless and unwise rather than deliberately dishonest, and initially declined to make an order on that allegation alone. Allegations 3-7 were dismissed on jurisdictional grounds as the conduct did not occur while he was employed by a solicitor's practice. Allegation 2 was found proved: the Tribunal preferred Ms ML's evidence and found there was no oral fee agreement, so his claim to 10% of her settlement was a level of costs he knew or ought to have known was unjustified. No express finding of dishonesty was made. Taking allegations 1 and 2 together, the Tribunal made a Section 43 order to protect the public and the reputation of the profession, and ordered the Respondent to pay one third of the Law Society's costs subject to detailed assessment.

Duties found breached:

• Proper basis for allegations
• Advise on alternatives, settlement and outcome

Aggravating factors:

• Holding oneself out as a solicitor when unqualified is a criminal offence
• Asserted a non-existent oral fee agreement to pursue a claim against a former partner

Mitigating factors:

• No finding of dishonesty
• Badly supervised by his principal Mr Charity, no formal training contract in place
• Young man with limited practical legal experience and scant knowledge of professional rules
• Acted out of a passion to protect vulnerable members of society, not for personal gain in allegation 1
• Difficult and urgent circumstances (preventing eviction of a young mother and child)