David Johnson

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

David Johnson, principal/supervising solicitor at Johnson Family & Property Law Ltd, faced two averments of misconduct. The first concerned a conflict of interest where a trainee under his supervision acted for both Mr and Mrs S in preparing an evacuation of survivorship clause on 25 February 2020 without advising Mrs S to seek separate legal advice. The Tribunal found this was not serious and reprehensible given the urgency (Mr S was terminally ill) and context, so found no professional misconduct and remitted it to the Law Society as possible unsatisfactory professional conduct. The second averment concerned a two-month delay in implementing a mandate issued 21 May 2020, delivered only 20 July 2020. The Tribunal found this constituted professional misconduct. No dishonesty or lack of integrity was found. The Respondent was censured and found liable in expenses, with publicity including his name.

Duties found breached:

• Diligence and timeliness

Mitigating factors:

• Isolated incident at lower end of scale
• Respondent showed insight and cooperated with the Complainers and Tribunal
• Man of good character, in practice since 1993
• Secondary Complainer made no claim for compensation
• Delay shorter than often seen in mandate misconduct cases