William Amo

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

Mr Amo, a trainee solicitor at Holland & Knight, was alleged to have misled partners at a 28 January 2020 appraisal meeting by representing that he had not failed any LPC examinations or modules, when he had failed a litigation examination on 27 August 2019. The SRA alleged dishonesty (or recklessly) in breach of Principles 2, 4 and 5. The case rested entirely on witness recollection with no contemporaneous note or minutes of the meeting. Applying Gestmin v Credit Suisse regarding the fallibility of memory, the Tribunal found all witnesses sincere and credible but could not determine on the balance of probabilities what questions were actually asked or answered. Giving weight to Mr Amo's character evidence and his lack of propensity for dishonesty, the Tribunal dismissed all allegations in a finely balanced decision. The Applicant did not seek costs and the Tribunal made no order as to costs, declining the Respondent's application for two-thirds of his ~£60,000 costs.

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