Kevin Edwin Francis Gregory

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

Kevin Edwin Francis Gregory, an unqualified person employed/remunerated by solicitor's firm Mahoney Mea, faced seven allegations under s.43 Solicitors Act 1974. Allegation 1 (falsely representing himself as a solicitor/trainee/acting solicitor) was found made out but the Tribunal expressly found his conduct reckless and unwise rather than dishonest, and declined to make an order on that allegation alone. Allegations 3-7 were dismissed for lack of jurisdiction (the conduct fell outside the period he was employed by a solicitor's practice). Allegation 2 was found proved: he claimed 10% (£3,600) of Ms ML's settlement based on a fee agreement that the Tribunal found never existed. Crucially, the Tribunal expressly stated it made no finding of dishonesty. Taking allegations 1 and 2 together, it made a s.43 order controlling his future employment in the profession and ordered him to pay one third of the Law Society's costs, subject to detailed assessment.

Duties found breached:

• Proper basis for allegations
• Advise on alternatives, settlement and outcome

Aggravating factors:

• Holding oneself out as a solicitor when unqualified is a criminal offence
• Pursued County Court litigation against ML based on a non-existent fee agreement

Mitigating factors:

• No finding of dishonesty; conduct found reckless/unwise rather than deliberately deceptive
• Young man with no experience of work within the legal profession and scant knowledge of the rules
• Badly supervised by his principal Mr Charity, with no formal training contract in place
• Acted with no thought of personal gain, motivated by desire to protect vulnerable people (e.g. preventing eviction of Ms JT)
• Acted on advice (Law Society Ethics, a High Court Judge) and a genuine, if mistaken, belief about his status