A former junior UK lawyer, who was disqualified for concealing the fact she had lost a briefcase containing sensitive documents, has launched an appeal after a wave of sympathy about the state of her mental health at the time. 

A top legal team has stepped forward to act on a pro bono basis for Claire Matthews, who had told her supervisors the briefcase was at home when in fact she had left it on a commuter train and was desperately trying to find it.

Matthews, who admitted the loss a week after it had happened, told the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) the mishap had sent her ‘into a state of uncontrollable fear and anxiety’ leading to ‘a moment of madness’.

A crowd funding campaign launched by her yesterday to pay her costs in the event she loses her appeal has so far raised £4,603 from 192 donors.

Matthews represented herself in her hearing and is currently working at a National Health Service call centre.

She said: “I feel it is important that this appeal is seen through so as to help highlight mental health in the legal profession and the devastating effect it can have when it impacts on careers.”

She had been working at the Birmingham law firm Capsticks at the time of the incident, having qualified as a solicitor less than a year earlier.

She told the tribunal the loss of the briefcase had ‘exacerbated her anxiety and depression’ and that ‘her behaviour had been irrational, an error of judgement and a moment of madness’.

But the tribunal ruled that ‘sadly, the respondent’s misconduct could only be viewed as very serious and this fact, together with the need to protect the reputation of the legal profession, required that strike off from the roll was the only appropriate sanction'.

The SDT also ordered that she pay £10,000 costs, adjusted down from an original figure requested by the Solicitors Regulation Authority and its legal team of £55,000.

Sympathetic lawyers launched a search to locate Matthews after the ruling was reported in the Law Society Gazette, and she has now lodged an appeal with the High Court with the support of leading claimant firm Leigh Day and barristers Mary O’Rourke QC and Rosalind Scott Bell of Deans Court Chambers.

Gideon Habel, head of Leigh Day’s regulatory and disciplinary team, said: “The case raises important issues, including about how we in the profession, regulators, tribunals and courts deal with mental ill-health in the legal profession. We look forward to presenting her arguments to the High Court in her appeal.”