A Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has suspended John Kishin Navani, a partner at Criminal Defence Solicitors, for 12 months, suspended for two years, after finding 43 of 50 allegations against him proved. The tribunal also barred him for the same period from taking part in recruitment interviews or disciplinary investigations at any law firm.
The ruling follows complaints by five women in junior roles at the City legal aid firm about conduct that ran from 2016 to 2019. Navani was found to have shouted at staff, clicked his fingers to summon them, demanded that employees bring back treats after leave, and threatened them with being blacklisted from future opportunities. In one case, he called a disciplinary meeting of about 30 minutes when one employee returned from holiday without sweets for colleagues, then told her she was not a team player before shouting at her with clenched fists as she tried to leave. He also told her that, because of the university she attended, she would not get a pupillage elsewhere.
The tribunal said five of the proven allegations did not amount to misconduct, including a remark in which he told one staff member that he regularly used prostitutes. But it also found repeated conduct that blurred the line between management and intimidation. In another exchange, when an employee said she had a hospital appointment related to fertility problems, Navani replied: “At least you won’t need to take maternity leave.”
The complaints also reached the hiring process. During one interview, Person D was asked whether she had a boyfriend, whether she planned to marry, and when she intended to go on maternity leave. She took the role anyway, saying the lack of training contracts in criminal law left her little choice. Another junior worker, Person C, said Navani showed her a CV and described the applicant as “very sexy,” saying he was always looking for a wife. He also told her that her eczema looked “disgusting” and asked whether it was contagious, then handed her a box of Wellwoman tablets in front of other staff and said they would make her better and stop her taking time off for medical appointments.
The most serious findings concerned Person E, an intern who said Navani took her to his flat after the firm’s Christmas party in December 2018. There, he dimmed the lights, adjusted the sofa to recline and suggested she lie down. He offered her a drink, proposed meditation and asked for a hug and a kiss before she left. Person E said she felt trapped and fearful, and the tribunal found the conduct was sexually motivated.
The case lands with particular force because the firm’s regulator had already acted in 2019, removing Criminal Defence Solicitors’ authorisation to offer pupillages after the complaints emerged. The firm no longer offers internships. Taken together, the findings paint a picture of repeated abuse of authority over five junior female staff, not a series of isolated lapses.
Navani’s suspension and the restrictions attached to it now set the terms for what happens next: he cannot work in the disciplinary or recruitment functions of a law firm during the suspension period, and the tribunal’s findings will stand as a formal record of conduct it said crossed the line again and again.
