Nicola Jayne
Girardier
Employee
7008348
Decision - Employee-related decision
Outcome: Control of non-qualified staff (Section 43 / Section 99 order)
Outcome date: 22 March 2023
Published date: 27 April 2023
Firm details
Firm or organisation at time of matters giving rise to outcome
Name: Jackson Brierley Hudson Stoney Incorporating A.H.Sutcliffe & Co
Address(es): The Old Parsonage, 2 St. Marys Gate, ROCHDALE, OL16 1AP
Firm ID: 51809
Outcome details
This outcome was reached by SRA decision.
Decision details
In the matter of: Nicola Jayne Girardier of Rochdale, Greater Manchester.
A person who is or was involved in legal practice but is not a solicitor.
The Facts
Ms Girardier was employed by Jackson Brierley Hudson Stoney inc A H Sutcliffe & Co (the firm) from 4 January 2004 until November 2021. The firm is a recognised body.
Ms Girardier was responsible for the day-to-day running of files for clients with a Deputy, supervised by the Office of the Public Guardian. She resigned from the firm in November 2021, after it was discovered that there had been issues with her management of a client's file for a period of approximately 12 months.
The client's benefit claims had not been properly progressed and she had accrued rent arrears. Ms Girardier had used her own funds to subsidise the client's personal allowance for a period of several months once the client's own balance had been depleted.
Findings
An order pursuant to section 43(2) of the Solicitors Act 1974 was imposed as Ms Girardier's conduct meant that it was undesirable for her to be involved in a legal practice without the SRA's prior approval.
This was because of the serious nature of her conduct in allowing issues to arise on the file for a vulnerable client over a period of time, and in subsidising the client from her own funds instead of bringing the issues to her supervisor's attention.
Ms Girardier was also ordered to pay the SRA's costs of £600.
Order
To make an order pursuant to section 43 that:
- no solicitor shall employ or remunerate her in connection with his/her practice as a solicitor;
- no employee of a solicitor shall employ or remunerate her in connection with the solicitor's practice;
- no recognised body shall employ or remunerate her;
- no manager or employee of a recognised body shall employ or remunerate her in connection with the business of that body;
- no recognised body or manager or employee of such a body shall permit her to be a manager of the body; and
- no recognised body or manager or employee of such a body shall permit her to have an interest in the body
except in accordance with the SRA's permission.