Mr Panesar was a managing partner in the property department of the Firm. He was the supervisor of Person A. Person A was a newly qualified solicitor, having been admitted to the Roll of Solicitors three weeks prior to the incident upon which the allegations relate.

The crux of the allegations levelled against Mr Panesar was that he instructed Person A to send an email to Client A which was misleading. Person A refused to do so and the email was not ultimately sent.

Mr Panesar admitted Allegation 1.1 save for the fact that he “instructed” Person A to send the email. Mr Panesar asserted that he “asked” Person A to do so, that the offending email was a draft and open for discussion.

The Tribunal rejected Mr Panesar’s assertion and found Allegation 1.1 proved in its entirety.

Mr Panesar advanced exceptional circumstances in mitigation to the Tribunal. The Tribunal accepted that exceptional circumstances existed and therefore imposed a sanction of 9 months suspension. The Tribunal further Ordered that Mr Panesar pay the Applicant’s costs in the sum of £14,000.00.