Jourdan Penrice

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

Jourdan Penrice, a pupil barrister, admitted four charges (4, 7, 10, 13) each involving dishonest conduct during pupillage: three instances of submitting plagiarised work (a draft response, an opinion, and a skeleton argument) in May/June 2021, and lying to the head of the pupillage committee about authorship. The Tribunal found dishonesty established but, given compelling medical evidence of serious mental illness at the time, treated it as a wholly exceptional case and did not disbar him. Instead it ordered that the BSB issue no practising certificate for 3 years, that he complete a further 6 months of pupillage before any certificate, with that pupillage not to start within 2 years. Costs of £1,800 were sought by the BSB.

Duties found breached:

• No baseless or threatened misconduct report
• Proper basis for allegations

Aggravating factors:

• Three dishonest acts of plagiarism within about three weeks
• Lied about authorship when questioned by the head of the pupillage committee

Mitigating factors:

• Suffering from a serious mental health condition (severe anxiety/psychosis, hearing voices) at the time of the conduct
• Detailed medical evidence accepted as the true explanation for his conduct
• Admitted guilt to chambers shortly after matters unravelled
• Admitted all charges at the outset of the hearing
• Wholly exceptional circumstances
• Subsequently admitted as an inpatient for treatment
• Prior academic high-achiever; now back working with the same solicitors who are fully aware of events