INTEGRITY

Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) chief executive Paul Philip has defended its handling of the Claire Matthews case after the regulator was criticised by the Law Society's Junior Lawyers Division. Matthews was struck off after lying about losing documents she was working on. The JLD argued that the decision was unreasonable given mitigating mental health problems that Matthews suffered as a result of the mistake. Philip said the aggravating factor was not the loss of the documents but Matthews' lies to colleagues about the matter afterwards. 29 May 2020