A London solicitor has been rebuked after admitting using abusive language during a phone conversation with a potential client and sending an inappropriate email to another solicitor.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority said that it had reached a regulatory settlement agreement with Daniel Robert Johnson, sole director at Equitable Law Limited in London.

A decision published on the SRA's website states that, on 8 July last year, during a phone conversation with a potential client, Johnson used abusive language. On 24 July last year, he sent an inappropriate email to another solicitor, ‘the content of which the recipient interpreted as threatening, and caused him alarm and distress’.

The decision states that Johnson, who was admitted to the roll in 1992, made two admissions, which the regulator accepted.

The first was that, by using abusive language referred to in the phone conversation set out in the decision, Johnson failed to behave in a way that maintains the trust the public places in him and in the provision of legal services contrary to principle 6 of the SRA Principles 2011.

The second admission is that by sending the email to another solicitor referred to in the decision, Johnson failed to behave in a way that maintains the trust the public places in him and in the provision of legal services contrary to principle 6.

Johnson was given a written rebuke and a financial penalty of £750. Johnson agreed to pay a £600 contribution to the costs of the investigation into the matter.

The decision states: ‘If Mr Johnson acts in anyway which is inconsistent with this agreement, all issues may be referred for consideration of his conduct which may result in disciplinary sanction, or a referral to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal on the original facts and allegations, and also on the basis that such failure to comply may also constitute a breach of principles 2, 6, and 7 of the SRA Principles 2011.’

Johnson declined to comment.