The paralegal falsely told colleagues that she had sent a time-sensitive email at 7am and altered the firm’s records to support her claim
A paralegal has been barred from working for a solicitor or SRA-regulated firm without regulatory approval after falsely telling colleagues that she had sent an important email on time and altering its timestamp in her firm’s case-management system.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) made an order under section 43 of the Solicitors Act 1974 against Brooke Middleton, who worked as a paralegal at London firm Eversage Associates Limited.
The order means Middleton cannot be employed or remunerated by a solicitor or an SRA-regulated firm, or hold a management position or interest in a recognised body, without the regulator’s prior written permission.
Middleton’s responsibilities included taking part in a staff rota under which an email had to be sent at 7am to the Home Office Priority Service (HOPS) to secure a priority slot.
On 18 August 2025, she failed to send the email at the required time but later admitted the mistake to colleagues. She was again responsible for the task the following morning and realised at around 8.30am that she had forgotten for a second time.
Middleton sent the email at 8.45am, by which time it was unlikely to secure a priority slot. When two colleagues asked through Microsoft Teams whether it had been sent at 7am, she told them that it had.
She then uploaded the email to the firm’s case-management system and manually changed the recorded time from 8.45am to 7am, making it appear that the task had been completed when required.
Her colleagues discovered later that day that the email had not been sent at 7am. Middleton was summarily dismissed for gross misconduct on 20 August 2025, and the firm reported her conduct to the SRA a week later.
The regulator found that Middleton had acted dishonestly both by falsely telling colleagues that the email had been sent on time and by altering the timestamp in the case-management system.
It concluded that, because of the serious and dishonest nature of the conduct, it was undesirable for her to be involved in legal practice without its prior approval.
Middleton, who had worked at Eversage Associates since June 2024, was also ordered to pay £600 towards the SRA’s costs.