Michael Jackson

• Application 10332-2009
• Hearing 30 March 2010
• Reasons 28 June 2010

The SDT ordered that as from 30 March 2010 (i) no solicitor should employ or remunerate, in connection with his practice as a solicitor; (ii) no employee of a solicitor should employ or remunerate, in connection with the solicitor’s practice; (iii) no recognised body should employ or remunerate; (iv) no manager or employee of a recognised body should employ or remunerate in connection with the business of that body the respondent, of Gateshead, Tyne & Wear NE9, except in accordance with Law Society permission; (v) no recognised body or manager or employee of such a body should, except in accordance with Law Society permission, permit the respondent to be a manager of the body; (vi) no recognised body or manager or employee of such a body should, except in accordance with Law Society permission, permit the respondent to have an interest in the body.

The respondent had, in the opinion of the Law Society, occasioned or been a party to an act or default in relation to a legal practice that had involved conduct on his part of such a nature that in the opinion of the Law Society it would be undesirable for him to be involved in a legal practice in one or more of the ways mentioned in section 43(1)(A) of the Solicitors Act 1974 as amended by the Legal Services Act 2007 in that he had held himself out as a solicitor. The SDT regarded the allegation as serious in that the respondent, by his actions, had committed breaches of statutory obligations. Moreover, the SDT considered that he might well have not acted in his firm’s clients best interests and that he had certainly caused damage to the reputation of the profession.

The respondent was ordered to pay costs of £9,418.