Michael David Schwartz

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

Michael David Schwartz, a solicitor admitted in 1979, admitted two allegations including dishonesty: filing a witness statement dated 22 December 2016 which he knew contained false/misleading information (claiming he mistakenly thought restrictions had not come into effect), and deliberately breaching practice restrictions by appearing in court for Toussaint & Co on 14 September 2016 without SRA approval. The Tribunal found his admissions properly made and his culpability high, aggravated by three previous disciplinary matters. The matter was dealt with on the papers by way of Agreed Outcome. The Tribunal ordered he be struck off the Roll and pay costs of £2,600.

Duties found breached:

• Honesty
• No taking unfair advantage
• Uphold public trust in the profession
• Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank
• Cooperate openly with regulators

Aggravating factors:

• Misconduct involved dishonesty
• Misconduct repeated and continued over a period of time
• Attempted concealment of wrongdoing from Tribunal and regulator
• Experienced solicitor
• Fourth occasion disciplined by the Tribunal (previous matters in 1992, 2001 and 2015)

Mitigating factors:

• Apologised to the Tribunal and admitted allegations
• Acted under extremely stressful time and great financial pressure
• Panicked when making the statement the day before the hearing