A solicitor, recently exposed for ‘brass-plating’ other firms, has been disbarred following serious misconduct involving client funds.
James O’Connor, a solicitor since 1997, has faced disbarment after failing to properly supervise practices he ‘brass-plated’—a term reflecting minimal oversight provided to firms trading under his name. This revelation came to light after £140,000 of client money was misappropriated by a solicitor under his nominal supervision.
Operating Barrington Lewis Law with its main office in Lancashire and branches in Preston, Luton, and Stockport, O’Connor failed to exercise adequate control over these offices. Instead, he accepted payments purportedly covering professional indemnity insurance fees, allowing the offices to operate freely with insufficient supervision.
Notably, Giles Guy Robertson, another solicitor working in one of these branch offices, sent O’Connor £600 monthly. When questioned by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) about these payments, O’Connor openly admitted his indifference to their origin, prioritizing personal profit over ethical practice.
The case against O’Connor also unveiled his unlawful involvement in paying thousands in referral fees for personal injury claims, contravening the legal prohibition of such payments. One company benefitting from these fees was involved in marketing efforts targeting the Polish community, under what was described as a referral fee agreement operating under the guise of legitimate marketing.
O’Connor’s other professional violations included breaches of accounting rules, failure to submit six years of accountant’s reports, false declarations to the SRA regarding client funds, and misrepresenting the nature of his firm’s work to his professional indemnity insurer.
Manifesting a pattern of dishonesty, O’Connor was found to have deliberately misled regulatory bodies and utilised client funds for improper purposes, including inadvertently paying staff wages before rectifying the error. His actions, driven by a desire to evade regulatory scrutiny, demonstrated a clear disregard for legal ethics.
In parallel developments, Robertson, who began as a paralegal before qualifying as a solicitor in 2013, was implicated in the fraudulent transfer of £141,000 for personal gain. The tribunal dismissed his defences as unconvincing and emphasised his intentional misconduct, which included permitting unauthorised third-party access to client accounts and attempting to mask his ambitions of managing a law firm.
Ultimately, both O’Connor and Robertson were struck from the legal register, ordered to bear joint costs of £57,000. The tribunal underscored the gravity of their actions, which reflected a significant breach of trust and professionalism in legal practice.
The cases of James O’Connor and Giles Guy Robertson highlight the severe repercussions of ethical breaches within the legal profession, reaffirming the necessity for stringent compliance and oversight.
