Alan Niall Macpherson Mickel

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

Alan Niall Macpherson Mickel, a partner/director of Hamilton Burns WS Ltd, faced a complaint involving an executry matter and a Scottish Legal Aid Board (SLAB) matter. On the executry allegations (that he instructed a misleading letter to a residuary beneficiary and took executor's fees of £5,033.33 without lawful basis and concealed this), the Tribunal found him NOT guilty of professional misconduct, holding a reasonable doubt on his state of mind and instructions, and remitted those matters to the Law Society for possible unsatisfactory professional conduct. On the SLAB matter, the Tribunal found him guilty of professional misconduct: having been alerted by a cashier's email in June 2014 that recovered judicial expenses had been improperly taken to fees rather than remitted to SLAB (creating a client account deficit), he failed to take action, failed to communicate/co-operate with SLAB, and failed to correct matters. The Tribunal expressly found a lack of integrity and recklessness but was NOT satisfied of dishonesty. The shortfall (£18,113.53) was ultimately met by the Client Protection Fund. The Respondent was censured and his practising certificate restricted for two years (supervised practice only). He was found liable for one-half of the Complainers' and Tribunal expenses, taxed. Publicity including his name was directed.

Duties found breached:

• Avoid wasting the court's time
• No improper communication with the court
• Integrity

Aggravating factors:

• Ongoing course of conduct over a prolonged period
• Previous analogous conviction for professional misconduct involving financial impropriety (January 2019)

Mitigating factors:

• Misconduct involved only a single case
• Respondent's health challenges outlined in medical report
• Positive character references
• No finding of dishonesty

⚠ figures not found verbatim in the source were dropped: ["review_dishonesty_finding_cue_present"]