A former paralegal with City firm Cooley has admitted copying and pasting client signatures to backdate a letter.
Sarthak Mukherji said he was worried about losing his job if it was found that the client had not signed the document and this caused him to act out of character.
He had also been concerned about his colleagues getting into trouble for not noticing the letter had not been signed at the time.
Mukherji had assisted in sending documents to a client for signing in September 2023. Just over a year later, a colleague wanted to refer to one of the documents and asked the paralegal to send him a copy from the file.
After reviewing the file, Mukherji noted that the disclosure letter had not been sent to the client and therefore not signed. He copied the client signatures from another document and forwarded it to his colleague. He did not tell the colleague that the disclosure letter had not been sent originally or that the client had not signed it.
Mukherji gave misleading explanations about what had happened, before he contacted his colleague two days after copying and pasting the signatures to admit what he had done. He resigned soon afterwards after two and a half years with the firm.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority took into account that he had admitted his conduct at an early stage and fully cooperated with the firm and the investigation.
The regulator added: ‘He was an experienced paralegal and was aware that he should not have misled his colleagues. Such conduct fails to uphold public trust and confidence in the solicitors’ profession and in legal services provided by authorised persons.’
He agreed to be given a section 43 order preventing him from working for any regulated firm without securing SRA permission. Mukherji must also pay £300 costs.