Tatiana Langridge

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

Tatiana Langridge, a senior associate solicitor, knowingly completed a residential conveyancing transaction on 1 July 2022 without an executed mortgage deed, knowing one was required, contrary to the Conveyancing Protocol and the lender client's instructions, and without informing the lender client. The Tribunal applied the Ivey test and expressly found her conduct dishonest, also finding breaches of Principles 4, 5 and 7 and Paragraph 1.4 of the Code. Despite mitigation including a difficult, unsupportive working environment, the Tribunal found no exceptional circumstances (per Sharma/James) and struck her off the Roll, ordering costs of £17,403.74.

Duties found breached:

• Honesty
• Integrity
• Act in the client's best interests
• Good faith and courtesy to colleagues

Aggravating factors:

• Experienced conveyancing solicitor who knew completion required an executed mortgage deed but proceeded anyway
• Acted contrary to lender client's express instructions in the Lenders' Handbook and breached the Conveyancing Protocol
• Failed to inform the lender client that the mortgage deed had not been executed
• Exposed lender and lay clients to serious potential risk
• Conduct found to be dishonest

Mitigating factors:

• Misconduct was not planned and occurred on a single occasion
• Short duration; no actual harm as mortgage deed was properly executed on 15 July 2022
• Respondent worked in difficult circumstances with no support and an absent supervising partner
• Self-reported to the SRA and fully cooperated
• Displayed some insight
• No previous disciplinary matters