Michael Peter Alexander

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

Michael Peter Alexander, a solicitor admitted in 1988, admitted three allegations of sending inappropriate, unwanted and (as to A and B) sexually motivated messages to three women (a barrister instructed by his firm, a prospective PA, and a LinkedIn contact) between 2022 and 2024. The Tribunal found the conduct was sexually motivated, persistent, and continued despite requests to stop and while regulatory investigations were ongoing, breaching Principles 2 and 5 and paragraph 1.2 of the Code. No express finding of dishonesty was made (the case concerned integrity and public trust). The Tribunal struck him off the Roll as the only proportionate sanction and ordered costs of £75,000 (reduced from £100,149.44).

Duties found breached:

• Integrity
• No taking unfair advantage
• Uphold public trust in the profession

Aggravating factors:

• Deliberate, repeated and persistent conduct
• Ignored repeated requests to stop
• Continued misconduct while regulatory investigations were ongoing (aware of Person A complaint when messaging B, aware of both A and B when messaging C)
• Victim-blaming responses and counter-complaints
• Lack of insight and attitudinal issues
• Abuse of position (dangling prospect of employment to Person B)
• Harm caused to three women

Mitigating factors:

• Admitted all allegations, sparing complainants from giving evidence
• Apologised
• No previous disciplinary findings
• Long career (38 years qualified) with no prior complaints
• Positive professional references
• Personal difficulties including bereavement (father's death) and earlier loss of business, marriage and home