Note 34 — Chapter XI · CLIENT, SOLICITOR AND COUNSEL

In the current press for March 20, 1911, there is the following report, under the heading, “Solicitors Struck off the Rolls: King’s Bench Divisional Court.—Justices Ridley, Darling and Channell.... Upon the application of Mr. T. Payne, appearing for the Law Society, the following solicitors were ordered to be struck off the Rolls:—Patrick Burke, formerly of Bridge Street, Manchester; Francis Ernest Swann, formerly of Fleet Street; and John Milton Kerr, formerly of Halifax.... It appeared that the statutory committee found Patrick Burke guilty of misappropriation of clients’ money, including £1,000 out of £2,250, handed to him by the Mother Superior of the Order of St. Joseph, for the purpose of purchasing a house at Stafford for the sisters upon their expulsion from France. The papers were sent to the Public Prosecutor and a warrant was issued, but the solicitor could not be found.... Francis Ernest Swann, on October 11, 1910, was sentenced to five years’ penal servitude at the Central Criminal Court for the fraudulent conversion of £1,700.... John Milton Kerr was convicted at Leeds in November last of the fraudulent conversion of £1,976, and sentenced to three years’ penal servitude.”