Mariam El-Sobky, a Lincoln’s Inn barrister, has been disbarred following a disciplinary tribunal that uncovered multiple serious professional breaches spanning several years.
El-Sobky was found to have secretly recorded family court proceedings and sent them to staff via WhatsApp to be transcribed, without informing the presiding judge in any of the cases.
Family court hearings are typically subject to strict confidentiality rules, particularly where children are involved, making the unauthorised recordings a significant legal and ethical violation.
The tribunal found she also “failed to keep the affairs of her client confidential” in March 2021 by sending legal papers to a personal employee email address without securing a confidentiality agreement.
A further finding against her centred on a hearing in July 2021, when she failed to attend an Advocates’ meeting ahead of a five-day final hearing in care proceedings involving a mother she was representing.
Rather than attend herself, El-Sobky sent an unqualified individual in her place, someone she knew to be unqualified, forcing other advocates to reschedule the meeting to the morning of the trial.
The incident involving the unqualified substitute is considered among the most serious findings, given that the client was a mother at risk of losing custody of her children in active care proceedings.
In December 2021, El-Sobky also used a WhatsApp group chat to write of a former employee that the “best place for you I think is a mental asylum. No access to internet or Wi-Fi and restraints lol,” describing her as “a very sick young lady.”
An Employment Tribunal ruled in February 2023 that those messages amounted to harassment under section 26 of the Equality Act 2010, adding a further layer of misconduct to her disciplinary record.
This was not El-Sobky’s first encounter with a disciplinary tribunal, having previously been reprimanded, fined £2,000, and ordered to shadow an experienced family law practitioner for six months after a 2021 finding.
That earlier sanction followed a tribunal ruling that she had spoken directly to an opposing lay client in the absence of their lawyer, with the tribunal noting she “was simply not on top” of family law rules after switching from criminal practice.
The latest tribunal disbarred her, subject to appeal, and imposed a lengthy suspension on top of the disbarment, compounding what is now a career-ending series of professional failures.
Before she can clear the suspension, El-Sobky must provide “satisfactory proof of capacity to practise by a BSB approved mental health professional,” according to the tribunal’s findings.