N P Adams and M J Scrace

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

Two partners of Nicholas Adams & Co faced allegations of conduct unbefitting solicitors arising from practising without valid certificates from January 2003, failing to properly wind down the firm, failing to comply with s.44B directions to hand over client files, and failing to comply with an Adjudicator's directions (plus, against Scrace alone, failing to reply to OSS correspondence about Mrs D's complaint). The firm was intervened into in May 2003. All allegations were found substantiated and uncontested. No dishonesty was found. Mr Adams (who cooperated and mitigated strongly) was suspended for 2 years and ordered to pay costs of £2,243.67. Miss Scrace, found to have greater culpability and to have obstructed matters, was suspended indefinitely and ordered to pay costs of £4,089.07.

Duties found breached:

• Disclose adverse law to the court
• No conflict between current clients
• Handle inadvertently received material
• Hold a current practising certificate
• No improper solicitation or touting

Aggravating factors:

• Both respondents had previously appeared before the Tribunal (findings dated 16 April 2003) for similar failures
• Miss Scrace's greater culpability, lack of cooperation with Law Society and Mr Adams, thwarting attempts to put matters right
• Miss Scrace sought to avoid service of disciplinary proceedings and offered no excuse or explanation
• Intervention into the firm was necessitated, with claims made on the Compensation Fund
• Considerable inconvenience and anxiety caused to clients

Mitigating factors:

• Mr Adams cooperated, made admissions and expressed contrition
• Mr Adams had suffered severe financial and professional ruin including cost of intervention (~£84,000) and sale of properties
• Mr Adams faced difficult family/domestic circumstances, becoming a lone parent for a time
• Mr Adams himself invited the Law Society to intervene and offered assistance
• Failures on Mr Adams' part were not deliberate; he had misjudged Miss Scrace's ability to wind up the practice

⚠ figures not found verbatim in the source were dropped: ["unverified_costs_amount=6332.74"]