Saaima Khalid

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

The Council of the Law Society of Scotland brought a complaint against solicitor Saaima Khalid, sole director/shareholder of an incorporated practice, after a confirmation statement showed five of her ten shares had been transferred to Omar Jamil (her husband), a non-solicitor, breaching the Practice Rules D5 and the company's Articles of Association for about four months. The Respondent maintained she was unaware of the transfer, which she said resulted from an administrative error by her accountant at her husband's request, and rectified it immediately when contacted by the Law Society Registrar. Despite Rule 13 and Rule 50 orders, she failed to produce documents. The hearing proceeded in her absence. The Tribunal, applying the beyond reasonable doubt standard, found the practice rules were breached but was not satisfied the Respondent knew of or authorised the transfer, and found her culpability low. It therefore held her NOT guilty of professional misconduct and declined to remit for unsatisfactory professional conduct. No dishonesty was alleged or found. An earlier interim expenses award (28 June 2022) remained outstanding, payable by her former solicitors; no further expenses were awarded.

Duties found breached:

• No conflict between current clients

Mitigating factors:

• Reasonable doubt existed as to whether the Respondent knew of the share transfer (attributed to an administrative error by her accountant at the husband's request)
• The Respondent immediately took steps to rectify the situation once alerted by the Law Society
• Low degree of culpability; a competent and reputable solicitor could have found themselves in the same situation