"She's overstepped the mark badly," was one partner's response to the Solicitors Regulation Authority's (SRA) decision that a former trainee at Ropes & Gray's London office traced a client's signature.

In the wake of the news, which was published on the SRA's website yesterday, partners across the City have expressed shock.

"It's a warning to everyone," said the same partner, who works in the London office of a global firm. "The reason people don't do this is because if you do it once, you lose your career. I've never even heard it suggested. It's one step away from taking client money. It's that kind of level. It's a once-in-20-year event."

However, while partners were quick to say that the SRA's decision to bar the trainee and fine her £2,000 was fair and that this was a particularly reprehensible act on her part, some pointed out that the level of competition between trainees and junior lawyers and the desire to impress senior colleagues and clients can tempt some to do things they otherwise wouldn't.

New guidance was issued in 2009 about the virtual signing of documents, following the Mercury case in which a judge decided that adding a signature page to a deed or using a signature page from a previous draft of the deed in a final draft would not be valid.

That guidance paved the way for lawyers to assess the boundaries of what is and what is not allowed when it comes to getting clients to provide their signatures at short notice.

Partners pointed out, however, that trainees would likely be unfamiliar with any such guidance and it would be up to firms to inform trainees of the mistakes that can be made in this area.

One Magic Circle partner said that in the run-up to a deal being closed, the team can get manic and key documents can get lost, as was the case for the trainee in question.

"The fact is you'll often have people who have not slept recently, some of the documents may not be in the agreed form yet, and you've got junior team members who are under pressure and who want to impress their superiors and the clients, so you do have this environment where people do something stupid like this."

The partner at the global firm added: "You can always fix these things. You can say, 'look, I've misplaced this'; it might create a small amount of aggro but normally people are pretty good about this. People say: 'Look, I'm not available right now, but I'll do it when I get back to the office.'"

One partner at a U.S. firm in the City said this would be a difficult thing for an inexperienced person to own up to, given their desire to impress superiors who hold their career as a lawyer in their hands.

"It's quite sad in a way. There is a lot of pride involved in being a lawyer, especially at a young age where there's a lot of pressure to get qualification. It's sad to see trainees to do something like this. I don't know whether there should have been better supervision.

"We absolutely all make mistakes – we just all need to be upfront about this stuff. Maybe this will open up more discussions about this kind of thing at an early stage with trainees," the partner added.

A Ropes & Gray spokesperson said: "This is an SRA matter and, as such, it would be inappropriate for us to comment. We can confirm that [the trainee] no longer works at the firm."

Legal Week was unable to reach the trainee for comment.