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What needs to remembered is that, unlike solicitors, barristers do not hold client money. If a solicitor misappropriates client money, then it is inevitable that the penalty will be striking off. These cases inevitably will mean the penalties imposed on solicitors will look harsher than those imposed on barristers, since there is an entire category of the most serious cases against solicitors that simply does not arise against barristers. This may not explain all of the differences mentioned in the article, but it is likely to go a long way towards explaining them.