Ellen Yee-Man Windsor

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

Ellen Yee-Man Windsor, sole practitioner, received £30,000 of client monies from client Ms CG intended to fund a divorce settlement but failed to operate a client account, held the funds in office account and used them for business purposes and her own drawings. The Tribunal found she misappropriated the money, failed to return it promptly (taking around two years), made false and misleading statements to another solicitor and to her client about the whereabouts of the funds, and attempted to discourage her client from complaining to the SRA/Legal Ombudsman. The hearing proceeded in her absence after an adjournment application supported only by a GP letter was refused. Dishonesty was expressly found on four allegations. She was struck off the Roll and ordered to pay costs of £33,727.45.

Duties found breached:

• Integrity
• Uphold public trust in the profession
• Act in the client's best interests
• Complaints procedure and handling
• No improper use of client money
• Prompt accounting and return of money

Aggravating factors:

• Multiple findings of dishonesty including misappropriation of client money
• Conduct extended over a significant period (around two years)
• Sought to obfuscate and conceal true position by maintaining a false claim of a loan agreement
• Failures related to basic and fundamental matters any solicitor would know
• Experienced solicitor (over 20 years PQE) in position of trust
• Financially motivated to support her firm, subordinating client's interests to her own

Mitigating factors:

• Otherwise unblemished record over a long legal career
• Positive character testimonial describing professionalism and integrity
• Client ultimately fully repaid with favourable interest and suffered no financial loss
• Discounted legal fees charged for the substantive work