Failed and Faltering Law Firms Targeted By Criminals In England
By: Ainsley Brown
To say that is recession has been unkind to the legal profession in England, indeed worldwide, is an understatement.
The legal profession was always thought of as being if not recession proof then at least recession resistant due in large part to the profession’s adaptability to prevailing market conditions – a corporate finance lawyer could always when things slow down shift his/her practice over to an area of greater demand such as bankruptcy/insolvency/re-structuring. But no more! We as a profession have witnessed a total paradigm shift and have move into an era where not even partners are safe from the unemployment axe.
The economic downturn as especially been hard on the sole and small practitioners; the High Street lawyer – for my non UK readers, the High Street is a generic term used for the main street or streets running through a town. Many High Street practitioners have been forced during this recession to either to cease operating all together, merge or seek out rescue buy-outs and now to add insult to injury some have found themselves the target of criminals.
According to the Solicitor’s Regulation Authority (SRA) it is working with several police forces across England investigating suspected infiltration of distressed law firms by criminal organizations. The SRA is an independent arm of the self-governing solicitor’s regulator – The Law Society of England and Wales – charged with the responsibility to “set, promote and secure in the public interest standards of behaviour and professional performance necessary to ensure that clients receive a good service and that the rule of law is upheld.”
Lawyers and law firms have long been the targets of criminal organizations, which is not surprising given the position of trust lawyers hold. However, these latest criminal efforts have taken on a whole new insidious flavour. The criminals have been brazen enough to go as far as to allegedly open sham offices and have even enlisting newly qualified solicitors, some as willing participants while others can only been seen as unwitting dupes or subjected to coercive methods (to put it mildly). In either case it is very troubling, indeed.
As a newly qualified lawyer myself I know full well the bright eyed exuberance, hunger and yes, the pressure of securing the first post qualification job. And now to hear that criminals in England are taking advantage of this positive energy at a time when the pressures to find that first job can overwhelm the exuberance are of grave concern.
It is important to note that concerns about these criminal infiltrations are part of a much larger discourse over the quality of practice management of failed or distressed firms.
interesting article-wasn’t aware of this.Quite a frightening concept.Id be interested to see a follow up article containing any official SRA comments on this-or any statistics if they are available.
As a 1 year PQE Solicitor I think it is hard enough for those of us in medium/small firms who are continually faced with trying to improve our services in this current economic climate. Issues like this do nothing to help convince the public we will act in their best interests and uphold our code of conduct whilst acting for them to offer a professional service
Interesting article. I am not aware of a problem like this in Germany. I am also pretty sure that such an Authority does not exist in Germany – we have the bar association that oversees the practices of German lawyers.