Stephen McGuire (1)

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

The Respondent, a solicitor who had ceased practising, admitted professional misconduct in three matters: failing to respond to Ms A and to the SLCC over her complaint and delaying provision of his file for over a year; failing to provide his file in Ms B's complaint for a year until threatened with Court of Session proceedings; and failing to progress a simple executry for Ms C over five years, failing to act in her best interests and communicate. The Tribunal found the conduct a serious and reprehensible departure from proper standards (singly and in cumulo) breaching Rules B1.4.1, B1.9.1 and B1.10. It expressly noted no dishonesty or lack of integrity. It censured him, fined £1,500, and restricted his practising certificate for an aggregate five years to acting as a qualified assistant under supervision, holding suspension or strike-off would be excessive. Expenses awarded to the Complainers.

Duties found breached:

• No improper communication with the court
• Act in the client's best interests
• Act only on proper, lawful instructions

Aggravating factors:

• Previous finding of professional misconduct in 2021 (censured and fined £1,000 for accounts rules and AML failures)
• Failures across three separate cases (Ms A, Ms B and Ms C)
• Failures persisted over very long periods
• Sought to but failed to complete instructions following initial SLCC complaint (Ms C)

Mitigating factors:

• No finding of dishonesty or lack of integrity
• Significant health difficulties at time of misconduct and at present
• Contrite; attended in person and admitted misconduct
• Paid compensation awards directed by SLCC
• No fees charged to Ms A/family
• Struggled following his partner being struck off in 2019
• Tidied his affairs and transferred practice to another firm; had retired and no longer held practising certificate
• Part of period fell within COVID-19 lockdowns