Don’t put it in writing?

A recent decision of the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) has provided a useful reminder to solicitors of the need to exercise caution whenever they send an e-mail, even if they believe they are engaged in private correspondence. The same decision also considered the relationship between principles and outcomes in the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Code of Conduct 2011 (the Code) and raised what some may consider to be the rather menacing and Orwellian prospect of the SRA pursuing solicitors for “thought crime”.

Case No. 11380-2015, Solicitors Regulation Authority v Brough, Chaudhary and Story, concerned three former partners of London firm, OH Parsons and Partners. Over a period of around 12 months in 2010 and 2011, while they were still at the firm, they had exchanged a series of e-mails which contained “inappropriate and offensive” comments. The precise contents of the e-mails were not disclosed but they included “abusive, disparaging and insulting comments about colleagues”, contained “sexual and racial references” and included comments about