Fiona McKinnon (1)

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

Fiona McKinnon, a sole practitioner, faced a Law Society complaint arising from three complaint originators (JW, DD, JB) plus failures to engage with the SLCC, the Society's Financial Compliance Team and the Court of Session. She failed to progress court proceedings, ignored correspondence, sought unnecessary continuations, failed to communicate with clients and failed to cooperate with regulators. The Tribunal, proceeding in her absence, found professional misconduct singly and in cumulo. It made an express finding of dishonesty regarding misleading client JW that a court action was underway when no Initial Writ had been lodged (breach of B1.2). On the client-account balance misrepresentation to the CPSC, dishonesty was not proved beyond reasonable doubt but the conduct was found to amount to lack of integrity. Given the seriousness and the dishonesty finding, the Tribunal struck her name off the Roll of Solicitors, awarded expenses to the Complainers (taxed, unit rate £18), and ordered publicity naming her.

Duties found breached:

• No improper communication with the court
• Honesty
• Act in the client's best interests
• Competence
• Cooperate openly with regulators
• Not misrepresent regulated status

Aggravating factors:

• Repeated and prolonged conduct over lengthy periods affecting multiple parties
• Negative impact on clients, other solicitors and the courts; progress of justice affected
• Failure to engage with Tribunal proceedings and disrespectful/cavalier attitude
• No remorse shown
• Conduct reached the highest level of the Scottish judiciary (contempt proceedings before Inner House)
• Finding of dishonesty (top end of spectrum of gravity)

Mitigating factors:

• Respondent already suspended from practice since 12 April 2022, so immediate risk to the public was low