Amanda Marie Lennon
Allegation / charges
Code of Conduct for Solicitors, REL's & RFL's 2019, Dishonesty, Lack of Integrity, SRA Principles 2011, SRA Principles 2019
Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision
Amanda Marie Lennon, an associate solicitor at Ascent Performance Group Limited, admitted all allegations including dishonesty. She had lied to the court about an advocate being ill when none was booked, fabricated two attendance notes purportedly from advocacy provider LPC, and misled a banking client (Client A) about the progress and outcomes of six litigation matters, falsely telling the client that judgments had been obtained when claims had been struck out or not progressed, over a period of about three years. The Tribunal found her culpability high and approved the agreed outcome that she be struck off the Roll and pay costs of £2,000.
Duties found breached:
Aggravating factors:
- Repeated dishonest conduct over a period of some three years
- Deliberate, calculated and repeated misconduct
- Concealment of wrongdoing through fabricated emails and attendance notes
- Knew or ought to have known conduct breached obligations to protect the public and reputation of profession
- Significant breach of trust placed in her by the client
- Conduct resulted in at least five of Client A's claims being struck out
Mitigating factors:
- Cooperated with the SRA investigation
- Made admissions to all allegations at the earliest opportunity
- Mental health suffered whilst at the firm
- Does not intend to practise as a solicitor again
Codes & rules applied
Duties engaged
- Act only on proper, lawful instructions
- Advise on alternatives, settlement and outcome
- Avoid wasting the court's time
- Cease acting on client perjury or disobedience
- Client-care and engagement terms
- Client confidentiality
- Competence
- Complaints procedure and handling
- Comply with and respect court orders
- Comply with rules of foreign jurisdictions
- Continuity and handover of representation
- Cooperate openly with regulators
- Costs and fee transparency to client
- Diligence and timeliness
- Disclose adverse law to the court
- Disclose material information to client
- Disclose referrals, commissions and benefits
- Fair dealing with unrepresented parties
- Fair, reasonable and lawful fees
- Full disclosure on ex parte applications
- Good faith and courtesy to colleagues
- Handle inadvertently received material
- Hold a current practising certificate
- Honour professional undertakings
- Keep client informed and respond promptly
- Maintain competence and CPD
- Manage conflict arising mid-matter
- No abuse of process or coercive powers
- No acting against a former client
- No baseless or threatened misconduct report
- No conflict between current clients
- No direct dealing with represented party
- No improper benefit, loan or bequest
- No improper communication with the court
- No improper fee-sharing or partnership
- No improper questioning of witnesses
- No improper solicitation or touting
- Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank
- No obstruction or victimisation of reporters
- No own-interest conflict
- No payments to witnesses on evidence
- No personal opinion or familiarity with court
- No prejudicial publicity for pending cases
- No standing bail or surety for client
- No taking unfair advantage
- No tampering with or coaching witnesses
- Not mislead the court
- Not mislead third parties or opponents
- Not misrepresent regulated status
- Pay instructed practitioners and agents
- Professional indemnity insurance
- Proper basis for allegations
- Proper termination and return of instructions
- Prosecutorial duty of disclosure
- Prosecutorial fairness and impartiality
- Protect capacity and vulnerable clients
- Protect legal professional privilege
- Report serious misconduct of others
- Safeguard documents and limit liens
- Self-report to the regulator
- Truthful, non-misleading advertising