Biglaw Partner Learns The Hard Way It’s Probably Best If You *Don’t* Forge Someone’s Signature On Legal Documents

// Sometimes when you’re studying for the MPRE, you get a hypo that is just too obvious — like the bar administrators are trying to give away points. Like, no, you can’t co-mingle personal funds and an attorney trust account. Or how about you don’t gossip at a church function about information you learned under the umbrella of attorney client privilege. You know, really easy, basic stuff. And you might have thought not forging a witness’s signature when the incompleteness of a mortgage deed is pointed out by the bank’s counsel would fall under the auspices of such a gimmie question. But at least one — now former — Biglaw partner would fail that one.

As reported by Roll on Friday, Robert Arnison was a partner at DLA Piper leading the firm’s Manchester, England, real estate group. He had clients trying to buy property with the help of a mortgage. But those mortgage documents are apparently tricky little bastards.

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But after he sent them across, the bank’s lawyer, Gary Shepherd, emailed Arnison with the dread words, “Robert, Just tried to call you. The legal charge isn’t correctly executed”.

The witness had not signed the mortgage deed, and Arnison, “suffering from anxiety and in panic”, and under pressure from his “particularly demanding” client, “applied a squiggle where the signature should have been”.

He then told Shepherd that everything was in hand, and within 25 minutes provided a copy of the executed document.

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But, obviously, the forged signature did not match the signature on other documents.

A properly executed version of the deed was eventually procured. Arnison confessed what he’d done up the chain at DLA, and the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) commenced an investigation. But even before that was completed, DLA took away his equity status and he was working as a consultant.

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As part of the ethics investigation, Arnison pointed to several mitigating factors for his behavior:

 

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Admitting all the allegations against him, Arnison told the SDT in mitigation that he had been working “extremely hard and, as he now understands, excessively hard”, particularly after a significant chunk of his team left the firm in 2013.

He typically worked 70 hour weeks and on Sundays and holidays. But he made “no criticism of the firm in this respect”, nor of his PA, explaining that he “plainly he took too much upon himself” and “was on the verge of burnout. Something had to give”.

The tribunal agreed that the former partner’s panicked scribble was “a classic ‘moment of madness’” which was “caused in large part by overwork for a period of about 10 years”.

Arnison was suspended from practice by the regulators for a period of one year, and will pay costs to the SRA of £17,250.

In response to the SRA’s decision, a DLA Piper spokesperson said, “We are aware of the SRA’s decision to suspend our former partner, Robert Arnison, following misconduct which was identified and reported jointly to the regulator.”

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Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Mastodon @[email protected].

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Biglaw, DLA Piper, Legal Ethics