Christopher Hawkes deleted the client’s email and lied, leading to a strike-off and £5,000 costs
A solicitor who tried to cover up his failure to act on a client’s instructions by deleting an email and then lying about it has been struck off the roll.
Christopher James Hawkes, who worked in Clarke Wilmott’s Southampton office, admitted dishonesty after an internal probe uncovered his deception. The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) ruled that his conduct had fatally undermined the trust required of solicitors and that removal from the profession was the only proportionate sanction.
Hawkes joined Clarke Wilmott’s private client and commercial litigation team in 2021 and took charge of a debt case later that year. His client, referred to as Client A, had instructed the firm to serve a statutory demand on a debtor.
Embed from Getty ImagesIn January 2022, Hawkes emailed Client A with a draft demand, recommending it be personally served subject to approval. By March, Client A instructed him to proceed and confirm once service had taken place. Hawkes replied in April, claiming the demand had been served by post.
On 26 May 2022, Client A followed up: “Hi Chris, can you also confirm that this was hand delivered also? If not, please can you ensure it is?” Hawkes filed the email into the firm’s document management system but never responded.
The matter resurfaced in September when Client A emailed again—this time copying in supervising partner Owen Williams—to chase progress. Williams forwarded the message to Hawkes with a question mark. Later that same day, Hawkes deleted Client A’s May email from the system.
When pressed the following day, Hawkes told his supervisor he did not recall receiving the message and then, at Williams’ request, falsely informed the client that there was no trace of it.
Clarke Wilmott’s IT department soon exposed the truth. Not only was the email still on record, but system logs showed Hawkes had deliberately deleted it.
Confronted at a disciplinary hearing, Hawkes admitted he had erased the correspondence “to try to cover up that he had not dealt with it”. The firm dismissed him for gross misconduct and notified the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA).
Before the SDT, Hawkes accepted dishonesty. In mitigation—though not agreed by the SRA—he argued that his judgment had been clouded by moderate depressive disorder. He also highlighted his inexperience, isolation while working from home, and feelings of being out of his depth.
He claimed he had been unable to seek support from senior colleagues and that the episode had caused lasting damage to both his health and career.
The Tribunal was not persuaded that these factors excused dishonesty. In its judgment, it said Hawkes had “deliberately misled both his client and his supervising partner”. The panel emphasised that solicitors must be trusted implicitly and that tampering with client records struck at the heart of the profession’s integrity.
Hawkes, born in 1972 and admitted to the roll in 2021, was struck off. He was also ordered to pay £5,000 in costs.
The ruling means he can never return to practice as a solicitor, marking an abrupt and final end to his short legal career