Patrick
Maginn
Employee
526634
Decision - Employee-related decision
Outcome: Control of non-qualified staff (Section 43 / Section 99 order)
Outcome date: 12 June 2025
Published date: 15 July 2025
Firm details
Firm or organisation at time of matters giving rise to outcome
Name: Bond Turner Limited
Address(es): The Plaza, 100 Old Hall Street, Liverpool, L3 9QJ
Firm ID: 444139
Outcome details
This outcome was reached by SRA decision.
Decision details
Who does this decision relate to?
Patrick Maginn whose last known address was in Liverpool.
A person who is or was involved in a legal practice but is not a solicitor.
Summary of decision
The SRA has put restrictions on where and how Patrick Maginn can work in an SRA regulated firm.
It was found that Patrick Maginn, who is not a solicitor, was involved in a legal practice and has occasioned or been a party to an act or default which involved such conduct on his part that it is undesirable for him to be involved in a legal practice in any of the ways described in the order below.
The facts of the case
Mr Maginn worked for Bond Turner Limited ('Bond Turner') as a Housing Disrepair Fee Earner between June and November 2023.
Shortly before leaving his employment there, between 8 and 9 November 2023, Mr Maginn obtained information which was confidential and proprietary to Bond Turner into his personal possession without Bond Turner’s knowledge and consent. He did so in the knowledge that he was prohibited from doing so and was about to lose access to the material.
The material comprised approximately 50 emails with attachments which Mr Maginn sent to his personal email address. The attached documents including templates and workflow documents and confidential client information.
Mr Maginn then commenced a new similar job with McDermott Smith Law in mid-November 2023. Between 10 and 30 November 2023, Mr Maginn used information during his employment at McDermott Smith Law which was confidential and proprietary to Bond Turner and without its knowledge and consent
Mr Maginn forwarded a large number of the Bond Turner emails and attachments from his personal email address to his new work address and then used some of the documents in his work for McDermott Smith Law.
Decision on outcome
An order pursuant to section 43(2) of the Solicitors Act 1974 was imposed as Mr Maginn's conduct meant that it was undesirable for him to be involved in a legal practice without the SRA's prior approval. The order pursuant to section 43 was made with effect from 28 days after the date of the letter or email notifying Mr Maginn of this decision:
Mr Maginn's conduct was serious because he demonstrated a lack of integrity and a serious error of judgment. He acted in his own self-interest in transferring the confidential and proprietary material without Bond Turner's knowledge or consent and then using some of it in the course of his new employment with McDermott Smith. In doing so, he showed a lack of any understanding of his duty of client confidentiality and no proper regard for the proprietary nature of Bond Turner's templates and workflows.
Mr Maginn's conduct was not simply naive or foolish, but demonstrated a serious departure from the high ethical standards of practice to which all employees of an SRA-regulated practice are expected to adhere. There is a risk that Mr Maginn could act in a similar manner to the detriment of another SRA-regulated practice, and potentially its clients by misusing their confidential information, if he is employed in another legal practice.
Mr Maginn was also ordered to pay a proportion of the SRA's costs of £600.
What our Section 43 order means
- no solicitor shall employ or remunerate him in connection with his practice as a solicitor;
- no employee of a solicitor shall employ or remunerate him in connection with the solicitor's practice;
- no recognised body shall employ or remunerate him;
- no manager or employee of a recognised body shall employ or remunerate him in connection with the business of that body;
- no recognised body or manager or employee of such a body shall permit him to be a manager of the body; and
- no recognised body or manager or employee of such a body shall permit him to have an interest in the body
except in accordance with the SRA's prior written permission.