Lawson Akhigbe

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

Lawson Akhigbe, a solicitor admitted in 2007, was found to have falsely represented to his client Mrs Sanni, to GT Stewart Solicitors and to the Clerkenwell and Shoreditch County Court that Kingsville Law Solicitors were representing Mrs Sanni when they were not, using the firm's letterhead, address and SRA number despite no longer being affiliated with the firm. He also practised as a solicitor outside the SRA Practice Framework Rules and, having accepted a fixed fee of £250, failed to take adequate steps to challenge GT Stewart's bill of costs against Mrs Sanni. The Tribunal found all allegations proved including dishonesty under the Ivey test. The Respondent did not engage with proceedings, served no Answer, and left the hearing partway through. Finding high culpability and harm, no exceptional circumstances under Sharma/James, the Tribunal struck him off the Roll and ordered costs of £20,070.96.

Duties found breached:

• Act in the client's best interests
• Comply with rules of foreign jurisdictions
• Integrity
• Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank
• Not mislead the court
• Uphold public trust in the profession

Aggravating factors:

• Dishonesty found
• Deliberate and calculated conduct
• Misconduct persisted over approximately 6 months
• Motivation of personal and financial self-interest
• Lack of genuine insight, no open admissions, limited cooperation with regulator
• Previous disciplinary finding (2012) for providing inaccurate information and failures to cooperate