Career Nightmares: When Lawyers Go Bad Part 2

Career nightmares, are often unavoidable. Not all career nightmares are of our own making. Sometimes we end up in a career nightmare because we happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. 

We might think that working for a big fancy law firm is the answer to all our prayers and that we are ‘living the dream.’ But it only takes one bad lawyer to bring everything crashing down around us.

For some people they end up working for firms that seem honest and legitimate but are really just a front for darker things.  When the dirty dealings are revealed the bad lawyers have already gone and the good guys are left to clean up the mess and face criticism.

In other cases you might find yourself with a colleague who is hiding dark secrets. When their secret is revealed people will wonder if you helped him or kept their secret.

Other times you may find yourself working for a boss who abuses their position of power.  people may wonder why you stayed or if you are part of the management why you let them behave in such a terrible way.

In each situation people are going to get hurt. They are situations which demonstrate life is not fair and the law is not always fair.

Here are three cases involving bad lawyers that made the news in 2023, that illustrate this point. Only Two solicitors have been struck off and can no longer practise as a lawyer in the UK.

1. Axiom Ince 64 Million Stolen From Client Account

Lawyer steals 64 million from the client account of Axiom Ince and gets off SCOT FREE

Managing Partner, Pragnesh Modhwadia, admitted in an affidavit that he had taken millions from clients accounts to build his property empire.

Here’s what you need to know:

Partners from Axiom Ince applied for a freezing order of all company assets in Sept 2023. Prag admitted taking the money.

Modhwadia, still remains a legal registered director on the list at Companies House.

A new arm of Axiom Ince was established in Dubai and money sent from the accounts to that branch. 

Whilst staff in the UK worried about their jobs and clients worried about their missing money, the Dubai branch splashed out over  £4,500 as a deposit to hire  Jin Bo Law Skybar an expensive venue for a party to host a shipping networking event.

Pragnesh has fled the UK.

No action has been taken by the SRA (Solicitors Regulatory Authority) against him despite the fact they had investigated him for suspicious activities.

Result: Not Struck Off – No action taken

2. Paedophile who worked at Herbert Smith Freehills

AH was a senior associate at Herbert Smith Freehills. In 2021, he was convicted of 3 offences relating to attempts to meet a minor, an 8-year-old girl for sexual activity.

In 2019, he and two other men planned to meet up with the child with the intention of engaging in sexual activities. 

When arrested it was discovered he had accessed, downloaded or stored 9,824 indecent photographs of children between 2009 and 2019.  

1,379 were assigned Category A, the most serious grade of image, which show penetrative sexual activity with a child, sexual activity with an animal or sadism.

Result: Struck Off

Misogynist Sex Pest at top firm Gowling WLG

Oliver Bretherton, former legal director at Gowling WLG, was recently ordered to be struck off following complaints by 3 young female members of staff.

The guy had clearly been reading the popular sex novel 50 shades of Grey as some of his more colourful activities included the inappropriate, forced use of sex toys and kinky requests. One young woman alleged he,

• “would ask me to send him pictures and videos of me weeing which I thought was odd.”
• “told me to go to the toilet and put [the remote-controlled sex toy] in me”, 

The tribunal decided he had activated the sex toy while they were both having a conversation with an equity partner in Bretherton’s office.

Result: Struck Off

Final Thoughts

You may find yourself caught up in a career nightmare, like those in the Axiom Ince scandal. You can read more about Axiom over at RollonFriday.com

When things go wrong the fall out can be catastrophic. Innocent people can and do get hurt. They may lose their jobs or have their reputations damaged and find it impossible to get a new job. 

Life is not fair and neither is the law.

One thing is certain, if you invest in yourself and your skills you will at least have a fighting chance of surviving a career nightmare.

Make sure you invest in your skills by taking the following steps;

• Keep your skills up – especially your  English communication skills as you will need them for networking.
• Network like a pro – build relationships not contacts.
• Be prepared to walk away

Have any thoughts on this? Connect with me on Linkedin and let me know.

When you are ready to improve your skills I’m ready to work with you. 

English Coaching is an effective way of building your confidence and improving your communication skills

Author: Caryn Leach-Smith English communication Coach and Writer

Book a discovery call here.

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