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This is a cruel and inhuman decision, and I'm afraid it typifies the attitude of far too many judges towards solicitors.

His Lordship is basically saying that if a solicitor is dishonest striking off should be automatic, except in circumstances which are not just `exceptional' but truly extraordinary.

This is utter nonsense. Solicitors are human beings, and as such they are all dishonest, some more than others. Every single solicitor reading this will have lied to their client or their boss or both at some stage. In the vast majority of cases such lies are successfully covered up, but what this judge is effectively saying is that every one of those solicitors - every one of you - should have been struck off.

Lying may well be ethically undesirable, and something to be avoided, but it's part of the social lubrication that enables us to function as a society. Most lies are quite harmless.

And even when they cause harm they must be seen in the context of the liar's situation at the time. In each of these cases it seems quite clear that the solicitor involved was not in any way inherently evil or even inherently dishonest. They were foolish, but they had been driven into acting against their normal instincts by extreme circumstances.

There was and is no reason to think that they would become habitually dishonest, so that they were unfit to be let loose on clients - quite the opposite, if anything. They should, of course, be punished, but they certainly don't deserve to be cast out of the profession. Those who do deserve severe punishment are the greedy partners who employed them, but they will no doubt be welcome attendees at His Lordship's little garden parties.

So the real lesson to learn from this ludicrous judgment is that it's absolutely fine to lie and cheat as much as you want - just make sure you cover your tracks effectively and don't get caught out.

And the worst aspect of this nonsense is that it will guarantee that any solicitor who's been dishonest - any one of us - will be so utterly terrified of admitting it or being discovered that they will now do their damnedest to conceal it, the effect of which will often be to make a bad but salvageable situation into a disastrous one.

I hope they appeal to the Supreme Court and that justice is once again tempered by mercy.