Hartlepool Solicitor Banned from the Profession as Firm Enters Liquidation..
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Hartlepool Solicitor Struck Off as Former Law Firm Faces Liquidation..
7th August 2026
A Hartlepool solicitor previously investigated over the alleged misuse of client funds has now been banned from the profession & struck off the Solicitors Register — while the law firm at the centre of the case is itself being wound up.
Fiona Jane Smith, formerly of MSP Legal Services LLP was connected to the Hartlepool law firm which was shut down by regulators back in 2023, following claims of account-rule breaches, dishonesty, lack of integrity and the misappropriation of client-account money, with this weeks judgement bringing a dramatic conclusion to proceedings which were exclusively reported on by the Teesside & Durham Post.
Case Came Before Tribunal This Week
Smith’s case appeared before the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal on the 6th of August 2026, with the Tribunal outlining the matter as involving account-rule breaches, dishonesty, lack of integrity and misappropriation of client account, something which initially led to regulators intervening in the solicitors firm with all its casework being transferred to a 3rd party solicitors firm to be dealt with.
Client Money Allegations
The disciplinary proceedings followed an earlier decision by the Solicitors Regulation Authority to prosecute Smith before the independent Tribunal.
The SRA said the case concerned alleged misuse of client money during the period around August 2021 to March 2023, March 2023 being the date regulators intervened and ordered the business to cease trading. .
According to the regulator, Smith was alleged to have caused and/or allowed a shortage to arise on MSP Legal Services’ client account and to have allowed inappropriate transfers of funds to be made, breaching the Solicitors Accounts Rules.
In a short hearing which lasted around 40 minutes this week the tribunal recorded that the ultimate professional sanction in light of the seriousness of the breaches was the removal from the Roll. Its claimed she’s not practiced as a solicitor since the firm was closed down just over three years ago.
Smith is also said to have been the second solicitor associated with the running of MSP Legal Services to be struck off, with Andrew Jones being removed from the Roll following a separate Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal proceeding heard on the 19th and 20th of December 2023 following claims the solicitor had deliberately strung a Client’s case Along for almost six years.
It means both individuals recorded as designated members of MSP Legal Services have now faced the profession’s most severe disciplinary sanction.
MSP Legal Services Now Being Wound Up
The latest disciplinary outcome comes as the beleaguered MSP Legal Services LLP itself is also going through insolvency proceedings.
Official notices show that a petition to wind up the solicitors firm was presented in the High Court on the 25th of March 2026 by International General Insurance Company (UK) Limited, which claimed to be a creditor of the business with the Teesside & Durham Post finding that court listings confirming that MSP Legal Services had appeared among the winding-up petitions before Insolvency and Companies Court Judge Mullen on that date.
Former Employees Had Already Won Tribunal Awards..
The collapse of MSP Legal Services had also previously resulted in a number of Employment Tribunal proceedings brought by former members of staff.
In one case, a former employee was reportedly awarded more than £6,000 in statutory redundancy pay, with the Tribunal recording that her employment ended on 5 April 2023 after the firm’s closure.
Other former employees also successfully obtained similar redundancy and employment-related awards against the solicitors firm following the end of their employment.
From Regulatory Intervention to Liquidation
When the Teesside & Durham Post first reported Smith’s disciplinary case in November 2025, the issue was whether serious allegations surrounding client money would ultimately be established before an independent Tribunal.
MSP Legal Services was shut down by the SRA in 2023. Solicitor Andrew Jones was subsequently struck off & now Fiona Jane Smith has now also been struck off the solicitors register. The business they operated is now recorded as being in liquidation following High Court winding-up proceedings.
The remaining significant piece of the picture will be the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal’s full written judgment, with that document likely to explain in detail not only the evidence laid out before the Tribunal, but just why two local solicitors were able to operate with such impunity, when complaints about their conduct spanned back several years before the troubled firm was even closed.
