George Constantine Panagopoulos

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

Dr Panagopoulos, managing partner of Reed Smith's Athens office, faced three allegations. Allegations 1.1 and 1.2 (instructing his secretary to bill clients for personal expenses of a London trip with his daughter, alleged dishonestly) were dismissed as fatally flawed in wording—he had instructed her to 'charge' expenses to client files, not 'bill' clients. However, the Tribunal found allegations 2 and 3 proved with dishonesty: he altered billing documents (DBRs) by adding the words 'purge/reverse' shortly before a 26 February 2020 investigation meeting to make it appear he had given additional written instructions, and then falsely represented that these annotations were made at the same time as the earlier 'squiggly lines'. Having found dishonesty and no exceptional circumstances, the Tribunal struck him off the Roll and ordered costs of £20,000 (reduced from £23,925 to reflect the dismissed allegations).

Duties found breached:

• No taking unfair advantage
• Not mislead third parties or opponents
• Uphold public trust in the profession

Aggravating factors:

• Proven dishonesty
• Conduct was deliberate and calculated
• Abuse of position of trust and authority
• Sought to place blame on his secretary (Ms Kourkouvela) and Mr Jeffcott
• Experienced solicitor aware of importance of not amending documents relevant to an investigation

Mitigating factors:

• Long, distinguished and impeccable career with impressive testimonials
• Misconduct took place over a relatively short period
• Full cooperation with the investigation and proceedings
• Not planned from the outset