A member of the Law Society Council has been struck off.

Richard Barnett was a member of the Law Society's Legal Affairs and Policy Board and is the former chair of its Conveyancing and Land Law Committee. In January last year his firm Barnetts Solicitors, which dealt in volume conveyancing and litigation, collapsed. On the same day it was broken up into four parts and sold by administrators in what Barnett described as "a fantastic opportunity for the firm to be able to move forward to the next level".

Barnett was investigated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, which was particularly interested in the money his firm had received from the notorious Axiom Legal Financing Fund. The Cayman-based outfit was set up to fund UK firms' litigation work in return for a share of settlements. It dissolved in early 2013 amid allegations of mismanagement, sending a string of firms out of business as a result. The Axiom fund's founder was a solicitor, Timothy Schools, who named his firm after a cash machine and was struck off last September.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal ruled that Barnett had breached SRA Principles 2, 3, 6, 7, 8 and 10 and two Solicitors Accounts Rules. It found that he took the fund's money even though he knew Axiom might be fraudulent and was either "reckless" or had "no intention" of paying the money back within the time limit, or using it as intended.

    "The money was just resting in my office account"

In an impressively long list of indiscretions, the SDT also found that the venerable Law Society council member had told his firm's accountants to expect £2 million from a bogus transaction, provided false information on his PI renewal form, misappropriated £600,000 of investment money, acted where there was a conflict of interest and encouraged another solicitor to do the same.

Barnett has been struck off and ordered to pay 85% of the SRA's costs (another naughty Barnetts partner is responsible for the remainder), with an interim payment of £115,000 due in October. He has also been sacked as a Law Society council member, providing him with another fantastic opportunity to move forward to the next level.
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Comments

Anonymous 24 July 15 10:55

No doubt he will be making a come back under another guise as did Nathan Andrew Iyer.

Anonymous 24 July 15 19:22

Have any of these commenters read the article? It's about the ex managing partner of a Southport conveyancing factory, hello!?!