Emeka
Okoabah
Employee
7158511
Decision - Employee-related decision
Outcome: Control of non-qualified staff (Section 43 / Section 99 order)
Outcome date: 6 August 2025
Published date: 6 October 2025
Firm details
Firm or organisation at date of publication and at time of matters giving rise to outcome
Name: Liberty Bridge Solicitors Ltd
Address(es): 16 Upper Woburn Place, Euston, London, WC1H 0AF
Firm ID: 645830
Outcome details
This outcome was reached by SRA decision.
Decision details
Emeka Alex Okoabah whose last known address was in London SE28.
A person who is or was involved in a legal practice but is not a solicitor.
The SRA has put restrictions on where and how Mr Okoabah can work in an SRA regulated firm. It was found that: Mr Okoabah, who is not a solicitor, was involved in a legal practice and has occasioned or been a party to an act or default which involved such conduct on his part that it is undesirable for him to be involved in a legal practice in any of the ways described in the order below.
Mr Okoabah was an assistant practice manager at Liberty Bridge Solicitors Ltd (the firm), a recognised body. He worked at the firm from February 2018 to July 2023.
Between March 2020 and June 2023, he removed archived client files from the firm's secure storage facility and placed them in his garage. He did this without the consent and knowledge of the firm.
In or around June/July 2021 and June 2023 a third party accidentally shredded the firm's archived client files that were stored in Mr Okoabah's garage.
When the firm requested some of the client files in 2021 and 2022 for submission to the Legal Aid Agency, he knew these files had been destroyed. To avoid his actions being found out he attempted to reconstruct the files and pass them off as originals when submitting these to the Legal Aid Agency.
Reasons/basis
An order pursuant to section 43(2) of the Solicitors Act 1974 was imposed as Mr Okoabah’s conduct meant that it was undesirable for him to be involved in a legal practice without the SRA’s prior approval.
Mr Okoabah’s conduct was serious because it demonstrated a lack of integrity, and a breach of the trust placed in him by his then employers. His conduct was also dishonest and such behaviour risks affecting public trust and confidence in the profession.
Mr Okoabah was also ordered to pay a proportion of the SRA’s costs of £600.
Other information
What our Section 43 order means
- no solicitor shall employ or remunerate him in connection with his/her practice as a solicitor;
- no employee of a solicitor shall employ or remunerate him in connection with the solicitor's practice;
- no recognised body shall employ or remunerate him;
- no manager or employee of a recognised body shall employ or remunerate him in connection with the business of that body;
- no recognised body or manager or employee of such a body shall permit him to be a manager of the body; and
- no recognised body or manager or employee of such a body shall permit him to have an interest in the body
except in accordance with the SRA's prior written permission.