A senior lawyer who claimed to work up to 23 hours a day to fool her firm into thinking she was hitting targets has been struck off – using the ruse to pocket bonuses and earn a promotion.
Natasha Janet Dionne Fairs, 47, faked timesheets by claiming marathon working sessions while working at leading law firm Irwin Mitchell.
The solicitor’s deception stretched for at least three years, helping the experienced personal injury lawyer land a coveted promotion, a tribunal was told.
The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal described Fairs’ behaviour as ‘deliberate, calculated and sustained over a significant period of time’.
Colleagues at Irwin Mitchell’s serious injury team raised the alarm in May 2023, triggering a review that found her claimed hours were ‘significantly in excess of what would be expected for a normal working day’.
Fairs’ supervisor found glaring examples of over-recording between February 2020 and April 2023, including a record that she had worked 22.9 hours on one day in 2022.
Other ‘inaccurate’ and ‘misleading’ logs included 20 hours Fairs claimed to have worked 20.2 hours on one day in 2020, and 18.1 hours on another day in 2023.
The firm expected a solicitor in Fairs’ position, known as a fee-earner, to record around 6.3 chargeable hours per day.
Natasha Janet Dionne Fairs, 47, faked timesheets by claiming marathon working sessions while working at law firm Irwin Mitchell
The personal injury lawyer once claimed she worked 22.9 hours in one day in 2022
Describing the ‘calculated practice’ to falsify her hours, the tribunal heard how Fairs carefully chose closed or settled cases where final costs had already been agreed, knowing they would ultimately be written off.
However, while clients and defendants were not charged, Fairs’ colleagues lost out on a share of the fees and the firm’s projected finances were skewed by her false records.
The ruling explained: ‘Those working on the same cases as the respondent received a smaller share of fees than they were entitled to, as costs were allocated among fee-earners based on recorded time.
‘Additionally, the firm relied on time recording to assess staffing needs, track work in progress, and forecast future fee income, all of which were adversely affected by the respondent’s misconduct.’
In one case, Fairs logged only half an hour of work within the case file but entered five hours on to Irwin Mitchell’s recording system.
In May 2021, she spent 36 minutes drafting two ‘brief’ documents but recorded six hours. In October 2022, she logged three hours for sending a short email, the tribunal heard.
Fairs’ fabricated work ethic also helped lead to her promotion to a senior associate solicitor in May 2022.
Her former supervisor Richard Geraghty told the tribunal: ‘Her actions also meant that she was rewarded in terms of salary and bonus payments based on performance that was not genuine.
The lawyer previously posted a video on social media speaking about her work at Irwin Mitchell
‘By manipulating her time recording, Ms Fairs was meeting her targets and this would have fed through to her performance ratings and in turn to her annual bonus payments.
‘The ability to meet time and billing targets are also relevant to promotion. Ms Fairs was promoted to Senior Associate during the time I was managing her.
‘You would usually struggle to achieve such a promotion if you were not meeting your targets unless there was some very specific reason to account for it.”
Fairs, who qualified as a solicitor in 2003, apologised and accepted full responsibility for her actions.
She claimed that ‘significant personal and professional pressure’, including the death of her mother and homeschooling during the pandemic, made it difficult for her to complete the number of chargeable hours that her employers expected.
Fairs told an internal disciplinary hearing: ‘I did the stupid thing. I appreciate that it was stupid and wrong. I felt my only option was to make up my time. I made the wrong decision I should’ve asked for help. I was drowning and the time pressure made me make the stupid decision to put the time down.
‘It was on closed files and I knew they were going to be written off. It wasn’t charged to clients and defendants, I wouldn’t do that…
‘But I get the point, it doesn’t matter what stage the file is it’s still wrong and I accept that.’
Fairs was expected to record around 6.3 chargeable hours per day
The tribunal struck Fairs off the solicitors’ roll and ordered her to pay £5,200 in costs.
The panel concluded: ‘[Fairs] benefitted from her conduct as it led [Irwin Mitchell] to believe that she was achieving her time recording targets.
‘Time-recording assisted [Irwin Mitchell] in determining bonuses for fee earners and also contributed to the reason why [Fairs] was promoted to the role of Senior Associate Solicitor.
‘These were serious acts of dishonesty committed over an extended period.’
The tribunal said Fairs would likely have continued to have submitted falsified timesheets had colleague not raised the alarm.
Fairs admitted four counts of misconduct.
