Michael David Schwartz
- Application 11593-2017
- Admitted 1979
- Hearing 23 February 2017
- Reasons 15 March 2017
The SDT ordered that the respondent should be suspended from practice for five years from 9 September 2016.
The applicant had applied for activation of a five-year suspension order made against the respondent by the SDT on 9 September 2016, that suspension to be suspended for five years subject to compliance with restrictions, including that he might not work as a solicitor other than in employment approved by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, and that he should immediately inform any actual or prospective employer of the conditions and the reasons for them (see application 11459-2015).
The respondent applied unsuccessfully in December 2016 to vary the restriction that he could not work as a solicitor other than in employment approved by the SRA (see application 11575-2016).
The current application had been made as the applicant believed there was evidence, including from the respondent himself, given in the course of the hearing in December 2016, that the respondent was in breach of the restrictions.
The respondent admitted he had knowingly breached the restriction order on 14 September 2016 by appearing in a magistrates’ court on the instruction of Toussaints, when he did not have permission from the applicant to undertake such work and so should not have appeared.
As the respondent had consciously flouted the order, and had displayed an inability or unwillingness to act within a regulated profession, the appropriate and proportionate step was to activate the suspension until 9 September 2021.
The respondent was ordered to pay costs of £2,250.