Top legal eagles fly clear of trouble after breaking rules

Top law firms are doing nicely by behaving badly - safe in the knowledge that someone else will pick up the tab.

- CHRIS BLACKHURST

Major practices lambasted for shocking breaches of ethical rules are avoiding financial penalties, thanks to their professional insurance.

As a result, their conduct is going unpunished. Worse than that, they are enjoying booming profits, despite being named and shamed.

This, at a time when the biggest UK and US international partnerships in London are enjoying record profits. The elite bunch have seen pay levels go through the roof. Annual accounts for one of the City’s “Magic Circle” reveal that the highest-paid partner received more than £7m.

Legal experts are demanding reform. Two recent cases have provoked particular alarm. Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) was sternly criticised in the fallout from the Post Office Horizon scandal and Dechert was slated for putting profits above their client’s best interests while working for mining company ENRC.

HSF is facing investigation by the Solicitors Regulation Authority over its handling of compensation awards to the wronged subpostmasters, for which it has billed fees of at least £188m.

The firm’s taxpayer-funded work on the Post Office Horizon clear-up has helped drive profits. HSF’s latest accounts show annual profits of £278.6m, up from £213.1m. This follows criticism from Wyn Williams, chair of the Post Office Inquiry, for “an unnecessarily adversarial attitude towards making initial offers” to over 900 people wrongly prosecuted.

The firm has denied any wrongdoing. Speaking to the Commons business and trade committee in 2024, one of the firm’s partners said they had only taken a reasonable fee given the amount of work involved.