(unnamed respondent)

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

Liam Connolly, an equity partner at Rowberry Morris Thames Valley LLP, was rebuked by an SRA Adjudicator for breaching Paragraph 7.5 of the Code of Conduct after, in a settlement offer to a former client (Mrs S), his 14 September 2022 email implied she could not accept the firm's refund offer if she reported the firm to the SRA/LeO. He appealed the rebuke to the SDT. The Tribunal found the Adjudicator had erred in treating factors such as personal responsibility, the client's ability to identify Rule 7.5, and his presumed intent/motivation as aggravating factors, expressly noting there was no suggestion of any lack of integrity or dishonesty. It also found the Adjudicator overstated the delay in remedy (only a few hours) and gave insufficient weight to mitigation including his admission. Concluding the conduct was no more than a minor/moderate breach, the Tribunal held a rebuke was disproportionate, ALLOWED the appeal and REVOKED the SRA order. No order for costs was made.

Duties found breached:

• Report serious misconduct of others

Aggravating factors:

• (As found by the original Adjudicator but discounted by the Tribunal) personal responsibility for the conduct; being an experienced lawyer and firm manager; provision only removed after client raised it twice; client unrepresented in the dispute; risk of harm though none materialised; presumed intent/motivation to prevent reporting

Mitigating factors:

• Isolated incident
• Previously unblemished record
• Insight and remorse shown
• Extremely low risk of repetition
• Breach was promptly remedied (within a few hours)
• No lasting or significant harm
• Admission of the breach