Solicitor struck off for blackmailing business partner

“Extremely serious” misconduct

A solicitor has been struck off the roll after being convicted of blackmail for threatening to report a fellow director to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in an attempt to secure a better exit deal.

Michael John Potter was appointed as a director of the climate tech investment company 350 PPM Ltd in September 2019. However, by spring 2020, the relationship between Potter, another director named John Price, and the founding director had deteriorated.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) said this led to settlement negotiations, during which Potter and Price, via a Zoom meeting, “advanced their negotiation position… with the threat that they would proceed to report to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) about alleged non-compliance by the company [and founding director] if that did not happen.”

The negotiations clearly did not go as planned, as Potter was later charged with and subsequently found guilty of blackmail under Section 21 of the Theft Act 1968 at Bournemouth Crown Court. He was sentenced to one year in prison, suspended for two years, and ordered to complete 240 hours of unpaid work.

In non-agreed mitigation, the tribunal heard that Potter had apologised for his actions and expressed genuine remorse.

The tribunal said: “The respondent’s misconduct could only be viewed as extremely 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.”

Potter qualified in 1991 but has not been employed as a solicitor since 1994. In June 2021, he worked briefly as a consultant at Eversheds Sutherland for several months.