Needs SRA permission to work for law firm again
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has placed restrictions on a City paralegal after it emerged that he had copied and pasted client signatures from one document onto another that had not been signed.
Sarthak Mukherji was working at the London office of US outfit Cooley when, in 2024, he noticed a disclosure letter had not been sent or signed by a client. When his colleague asked for it, the SRA says Mukherji copied the client signature from a different source and pasted it into the unsent letter, before forwarding it to the colleague.
Mukherji explained that he did so because he was “worried about losing his job” and was also “worried about his colleagues getting into trouble” for not noticing the letter had not been signed at the time. This, he argued in mitigation, caused him to “act out of character”.
After the copy and paste job, a different colleague then asked if the unsigned letter had actually been circulated at the time — and Mukherji, who had been involved with its sending over a year before, said he did not believe that it had. The firm’s document archive also suggested the discrepancy.
The paralegal later admitted he had copied and pasted the signatures of the client. After a subsequent meeting, Mukherji resigned the next month due to personal reasons.
Though the SRA decision makes it clear Mukherji had “misled his colleagues” and that his “conduct was dishonest,” it did take into account that he had admitted his actions at an early stage, showed insight and expressed remorse.
As he is not a solicitor, Mukherji was made subject to a Section 43 order, requiring him to obtain permission from the SRA before working at any regulated law firm. He was also fined £300.
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