A senior solicitor from Manchester has been disbarred for “knowingly” and “recklessly” deceiving an unrepresented opposing party and attempting to involve a junior colleague.
According to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, in September 2023, Kirsten Tomlinson was working as a senior associate solicitor in Irwin Mitchell LLP’s family law department when she misled her client’s estranged partner into believing she had filed a notice to proceed with a financial application. She emailed the opponent, stating the application would be withdrawn if they quickly returned a signed statement of information.
Tomlinson also emailed her colleague, chartered legal executive Charlotte Watson, instructing her to reinforce the deception. The message stated: “Tell him client says we will withdraw our application to court as soon as we receive the signed docs from him (he doesn’t know we haven’t issued… we just led him to believe we did)”.
Although Tomlinson was responsible for the case, Watson managed most of the day-to-day tasks. The misconduct was exposed when Watson reported her concerns to a partner.
The dispute involved Tomlinson’s client and their former partner trying to settle their finances via a consent order. After initial delays, both sides agreed, but further hold-ups occurred while gathering necessary information and obtaining the opponent’s signature on the consent order.
Tomlinson told the tribunal that she acted on her client’s instructions and out of frustration with lengthy proceedings. The firm had taken on the client’s case about 18 months earlier, in March 2022.
