A disciplinary allegation puts your livelihood and your reputation in the same place at the same time. For most professionals that is a more serious prospect than the financial consequence of any sanction.
We act for individuals facing disciplinary and regulatory proceedings: lawyers, accountants, financial services professionals, directors, trustees and others whose ability to work depends on their standing.
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Why the Early Stage Matters Most
By the time a matter reaches a hearing, most of what will decide it is already fixed. It was fixed in the first response, the first interview, and the documents produced at the outset.
That is where we would rather be involved. A response drafted carefully, on a properly established set of facts, frequently resolves a matter without a hearing. A response written quickly, out of a wish to appear co-operative, can create a record that is very hard to move away from later.
If a matter has already progressed, we can still take it on. The work is simply different.
What We Do
Establish What Is Actually Alleged
Complaints and referrals are often broader and vaguer than the evidence behind them supports. The first task is to identify precisely what is alleged, what evidence exists for it, and what is inference.
That exercise regularly narrows a matter considerably, and it tells you which points are worth contesting.
Prepare the Response
We can prepare written representations, assemble the supporting documentation and evidence, and advise on whether admissions should be made and in what terms. Where something has genuinely gone wrong, an early and properly framed acknowledgement usually produces a better outcome than a contested hearing.
Represent You at Hearing
Where a matter is contested, we can represent you before the relevant tribunal or disciplinary body, and advise on any right of appeal.
Manage the Parallel Problems
Disciplinary proceedings rarely arrive alone. There may be a regulatory investigation, an employment issue, a civil claim, or press interest running at the same time, and what is said in one can be used in another.
Co-ordinating those strands so that a single consistent account is given is frequently the most valuable part of the work.
Being Straight With You
We will tell you at the outset how we think a matter is likely to go. That includes telling you when the sensible course is to accept an outcome rather than contest it, and when a fight is worth having.
Nobody can guarantee a result in a disciplinary matter. Anyone who tells you otherwise is not being straight with you.
Why Clients Instruct Sinels
We operate completely free of institutional conflicts of interest. We hold no standing retainers with the firms, regulators or professional bodies who may sit on the other side of your matter.
We are a litigation practice. Disciplinary proceedings are evidence-driven, and assembling and testing evidence is what we do.
Everything you tell us is confidential.
Speak to a Senior Jersey Advocate
Or Call Us: +44 (0)1534 620500
Frequently Asked Questions
I have received a complaint and been asked to respond. Should I just explain what happened?
Be careful. A full and honest account is right, but the sequence matters. Establish the documentary record first, so that what you say is consistent with what the papers show.
Responses written from memory before the file has been reviewed are the single most common source of avoidable difficulty in these matters.
My employer has instructed lawyers. Am I covered?
Those lawyers act for the employer. Where the employer’s explanation is that an individual made a mistake, your interests and theirs are not the same, and you should consider taking your own advice.
Can these proceedings be kept private?
It depends on the body and the stage. Some processes are confidential until a finding is made and others are not, and publication of a finding is frequently the consequence that matters most.
We can advise on what is likely to be published, and on whether that is something that can be addressed as part of the outcome.
