Lawyer who called for biblical curses on barrister is struck off

The plagues will fall on you just like Pharaoh’: Christian lawyer who called down biblical curses on head of rival barrister in string of emails is struck off for serious misconduct

• Solicitor Alvin Just sent a series of ‘inappropriate’ emails to barrister Philip Noble
• He was struck off and ordered to pay more than £40,000 following a tribunal

A Christian lawyer who called down biblical curses on the head of a rival barrister through email has been struck off for serious misconduct.  

Solicitor Alvin Just sent ‘inappropriate and unprofessional’ emails to barrister Philip Noble after clashing during a will dispute at Central London County Court in 2017.  

He told Mr Noble: ‘You are just fading away one step closer to your grave…I will not lose any sleep for your nonsense, as I know the plagues will fall on you just like Pharaoh.’

Mr Just also added that the barrister reminded him of ‘a Grade 7 bully’ that he ‘had to slam to the ground’.

Messages were sent to Mr Noble’s client as well, warning: ‘Your judgement is coming soon beware, and it will not be an easy one, the Most High knows that.. Just remember that whosoever diggeth a pit shall fall in it.’

Solicitor Alvin Just (pictured) sent an ‘inappropriate’ string of emails to barrister Philip Noble

Mr Just, 51, a partner at London-based Just & Brown Solicitors, was hauled before a disciplinary tribunal last year following concerns over the emails.

In his defence, Mr Just did not accept his comments were ‘inappropriate’ and argued that Mr Noble had a ‘serious vendetta’ against him. 

He claimed quoting passages from the Bible was also not in breach of his duties and to be accused in relation to them was a breach of his own human rights. 

But in a judgment published earlier this month, the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal stressed: ‘Even in the context of hostile litigation, members of the public would expect solicitors to be robust, but temperate in the language they used when communicating with the other side.

‘That expectation was even higher when those communications were with the lay client.’

The tribunal also noted that while Mr Just’s expression of ‘frustration and annoyance’ with Mr Noble was deemed ‘inappropriate’ these comments were not found to be ‘offensive or threatening’.

‘In communicating in the way that he did, Mr Just had failed to maintain the trust the public placed in him,’ it added.

Allegations were also considered in relation to the solicitor’s handling of a case involving a will and also his response to the SRA’s investigation into him.

The tribunal found that Mr Just had failed to ensure a client’s money was kept separate in a special ‘client account’.

One of Mr Just’s emails warned ‘you are just fading away one step closer to your grave’

He also failed to cooperate with the SRA’s investigation into him having ‘deliberately withheld information and misled the SRA in a number of material matters’, it was said.  

‘The tribunal found that ordinary and decent people would consider that a solicitor who had knowingly and deliberately lied and misled his regulator during the course of an investigation into his conduct had acted dishonestly,’ it added.

It was concluded that ‘the only appropriate and proportionate sanction, given the seriousness of Mr Just’s conduct, was to strike him off the Roll of Solicitors.’

He was also ordered to pay costs of £41,896.20.

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