Alan Alexander Slessor Wilson

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

The Respondent, an experienced Aberdeen solicitor, drafted a will for the Secondary Complainer's father in 2014. His secretary typed the testing clause but failed to sign as witness at the time. In 2019, after discovering the omission, the Respondent asked the retired secretary to add her signature and then certified a copy of the will as a true copy, when the original had not been witnessed. The Tribunal found him not guilty of misconduct regarding the 2014 supervision failure (a mistake a competent solicitor could make), but guilty of professional misconduct (breach of Rule B1.2) for certifying a document he knew was not a true copy. The Tribunal expressly found he had NOT acted dishonestly (believing he was curing an oversight), but had allowed his integrity to be called into question. He was censured, fined £1,000, and found liable for 66% of expenses.

Duties found breached:

• Cease acting on client perjury or disobedience

Aggravating factors:

• Conduct likely to affect the reputation of the profession
• By his own evidence, he was aware of the significance of the absence of the witness's signature
• An established procedure existed for setting up a will which he failed to follow

Mitigating factors:

• No previous findings of professional misconduct or unsatisfactory professional conduct
• Remorse and contrition expressed
• Conduct related to a single event
• Cooperated with the Law Society and the Tribunal, provided a joint minute
• Some insight into his conduct
• No obvious damage to the public
• Offered to plead guilty in February if dishonesty deleted from Complaint

⚠ figures not found verbatim in the source were dropped: ["review_dishonesty_finding_cue_present"]