Elena Jalali
Employee
7252033

Decision - Employee-related decision

Outcome: Control of non-qualified staff (Section 43 / Section 99 order)

Outcome date: 20 February 2025

Published date: 25 March 2025

Firm details

Firm or organisation at time of matters giving rise to outcome

Name: Macfarlanes LLP

Address(es): 20 Cursitor Street LONDON EC4A 1LT England

Firm ID: 486980

Outcome details

This outcome was reached by SRA decision.

Decision details

Who does this decision relate to?

Elena Jalali whose last known address was in London N6. 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 Ms Jalali can work in an SRA regulated firm. It was found that:

Ms Jalali, who is not a solicitor, was involved in a legal practice and has occasioned or been a party to an act or fefault which involved such conduct on her part that it is undesirable for her to be involved in a legal practice in any of the ways described in the order below.

Reasons/basis

The facts of the case

Ms Jalali was a paralegal at the time employed by the Macfarlanes LLP (the Firm), a recognised body. In July and August 2023, Ms Jalali repeatedly accessed information that was confidential and which she knew or ought to have known she was not entitled to access, namely documents including a Business Case Study Exercise, model answers and the mark scheme, for a training contract assessment day she attended in August 2023.

She used the information she had accessed to gain an unfair advantage at that assessment day.

When the matter was investigated by the Firm on 17 August 2023 Ms Jalali denied that she had accessed confidential assessment information when she knew she had done so repeatedly.

Decision on outcome

An order pursuant to section 43(2) of the Solicitors Act 1974 was imposed as Ms Jalali's conduct meant that it was undesirable for her 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 from the date of this decision:

Ms Jalali's conduct was serious because it demonstrated a lack of integrity and a breach of the trust placed in her by her then employers. Her conduct was also dishonest and such behaviour risks affecting public trust and confidence in the profession.

Ms Jalali was also ordered to pay a proportion of the SRA's costs of £600.

What our Section 43 order means

1. no solicitor shall employ or remunerate her in connection with his/her practice as a solicitor; Page 14 of 14 Solicitors Regulation Authority Limited Sensitivity: Confidential
2. no employee of a solicitor shall employ or remunerate her in connection with the solicitor's practice;
3. no recognised body shall employ or remunerate her;
4. no manager or employee of a recognised body shall employ or remunerate her in connection with the business of that body;
5. no recognised body or manager or employee of such a body shall permit her to be a manager of the body; and
6. 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 prior written permission