A man who worked for six months with a law firm after giving false details of his legal experience has been barred from the profession.
Jacob McSherry submitted a CV through an agency which claimed he had five years’ experience working in a firm called Russell & Russell Solicitors. He also supplied a reference purportedly from the same employer. In fact he had never been with a firm of that name and no-one had supplied any reference.
McSherry then secured work as a paralegal with Manchester firm Slater Heelis and stayed there from December 2020 until May 2021.
An SRA notice stated that McSherry witnessed and signed a statutory declaration in which he held himself out to be a commissioner for oaths and/or an officer of the court. He held none of these positions and had not been authorised to make the declaration by anyone at Slater Heelis.
McSherry, from Bury, also sent a letter by email on a private business matter in which he falsely described himself as a solicitor.
The SRA imposed a section 43 notice preventing McSherry from working for any regulated firm. He must also pay £600 costs. The notice added: ‘Mr McSherry’s conduct was serious. It involved misleading people as to his employment history in the profession, holding himself out as a solicitor when he was not one and witnessing a statutory declaration when he had no right to do so.’
Slater Heelis has been approached for comment.
