Coroner removed from Roll of Solicitors after appointing wife as deputy

A coroner who appointed his wife as a deputy assistant coroner has agreed to remove his name from the solicitors’ roll and undertake not to apply for its restoration.

Andrew Scott Reid, who became a solicitor in 1995, sat as HM Coroner Inner North London and in 2009 appointed his wife Suzanne Greenaway as a deputy assistant coroner.

After she had presided over more than 30 inquests, including that of the singer Amy Winehouse, it emerged in 2011 that she lacked the qualifications for the post having been neither a qualified legal or medical practitioner for a period of five years.

Ms Greenaway resigned in November 2011 and in December 2012 the Office for Judicial Complaints recommended Dr Reid’s removal although he had by then resigned both as a coroner and also as a tribunal judge in the Health Education and Social Care Chamber.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority said Dr Reid had agreed to remove his name from the Roll of Solicitors and undertaken not to seek to have it restored.

He had also agreed to pay the SRA’s costs of £495 and not to act in any way inconsistent with this agreement such as, for example, by denying the misconduct set out in his admission.

In mitigation it was said that Dr Reid no longer resided in the UK, had no adverse regulatory history and had confirmed he had no intention of practising as a solicitor in England and Wales in the future.

Mark Smulian