Priyank Tanwar

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

Priyank Tanwar, a self-employed consultant solicitor with conduct of private family law proceedings, failed to attend a final contested hearing in person at Leicester County Court on 24 August 2023 as required by a court order, and failed to arrange a suitable representative. He attended by telephone from Munich, Germany, but repeatedly told the Recorder (on at least four occasions) that he was located at the firm's offices in Ealing, London, when he was actually abroad. The Tribunal found both allegations proved including dishonesty, applying the Ivey test, rejecting his explanation that he believed he was being asked about his firm's location to establish his credentials. Finding no exceptional circumstances, the Tribunal struck him off the Roll and ordered costs of £7,500 (reduced from £32,542.50 sought, in light of his means).

Duties found breached:

• Not mislead the court
• Avoid wasting the court's time
• Comply with and respect court orders
• Honesty
• Integrity
• Uphold public trust in the profession
• Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank

Aggravating factors:

• Misleading a judge, characterised as misconduct of the highest order
• Misleading conduct sustained over the course of the hearing rather than a momentary lapse
• Lack of insight into the nature or effect of his misconduct
• Not truthful or persuasive when giving evidence to the Tribunal
• Harm caused to others including the children in the family proceedings and disruption to the court hearing

Mitigating factors:

• No previous disciplinary findings
• Numerous positive character references
• No financial gain from the misconduct
• Limited weight given to medical evidence of anxiety and depression