Mark Andrew Shepherd

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

Mark Andrew Shepherd, a partner in the London real estate team at DWF Law LLP, admitted that between October 2019 and November 2020 he failed to check that contract conditions had been met and that monies were properly due before authorising payments from the firm's client account. The matter was resolved by Agreed Outcome. The Tribunal found his admissions properly made and imposed a fine, noting no finding of dishonesty. He was fined £14,168 and ordered to pay £19,000 costs.

Duties found breached:

• Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank
• No conflict between current clients
• Prompt accounting and return of money
• Good faith and courtesy to colleagues

Aggravating factors:

• As a partner he had ultimate responsibility for final sign-off on payment authorisations
• Very large sums of money were involved, requiring greater care and scrutiny

Mitigating factors:

• Self-reported the matter
• Made appropriate admissions