Solicitor Suspended for Failing to Advise Independent Counsel

Solicitor Richard Davies, former partner of Neston-based RBMDavies and Partners, has been suspended for three years after admitting todrawing up wills for two elderly women in which he would personally inherit £150,000.  Davies must also pay £70,000 in costs for acting in a “manipulative way.”

Thewomen, both in their 90s, had become “obsessed” with Davies, with one of thewomen calling Davies her “boyfriend.” Family members testified Davies would visit regularly, bring gifts, and sayhe was short on money. 

Davies, 61, claims he didn’t know he had to recommend independent legal counsel to the women before benefitting from their wills.  Davies says hewas just trying to be kind to two old lonely ladies and believes his suspensionto be “incredibly harsh.”

See EleanorBarlow, Shamed Solicitor Stood to Make £150,000 from Wills of Elderly Women Clients, Liverpool Daily Post, Sept.19, 2013.