Junior lawyer struck off despite 'abominable' workplace conditions

A junior lawyer has been struck off for dishonesty – despite having endured conditions described as “abominable” at her place of work.

Law Gazette reports that Sovani James, now 35, was a junior lawyer with south east firm McMillan Williams when she backdated four letters to make it look as if she was working on a clinical negligence case, resulting in her being struck off.

However, Lord Justice Flaux described the way James was treated at work as “frankly abominable” as she was told she should work through evenings, weekends and bank holidays to cover any shortfall in her billed hours, and had her performance publicly compared to other all junior lawyers through league tables.

Despite this, Flaux ruled that the stress and depression suffered as a result of these working conditions, could not amount on their own to 'exceptional circumstances' required to avoid a strike-off.