The former Head of Hammonds' Brussels office has been censured after trying to get his clients to pay for his holidays.

Konstantinos Adamantopoulos qualified as a Greek lawyer in 1984 and joined what was then Hammonds in 1993, being promoted in 1998 to Brussels Managing Partner. However by 2010 the firm was on the verge of morphing into Squire Patton Boggs, and Adamantopoulos left to join Holman Fenwick Willan. Thanks to a lengthy judgment by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal on 16th March, it is now clear why.

The SDT found that he had used his office account to pay for a cash call to Hammonds Direct, despite the fact that the cash call was his personal liability. Adamantopoulos claimed he believed at the time that he was entitled to borrow money from the firm, a proposition that the SDT described as "extraordinary".

He also tried to bill clients €16,000 for his own luxury skiing holiday in Zermatt, a favourite destination of badly behaved lawyers. Adamantopoulos had prepared the bills but failed to send them after the firm got wind that something was up and instructed KPMG to investigate his affairs. He had, however, billed a number of clients €7,000 for expenses relating to his family holiday in Greece in 2009. And he also charged the firm €12,400 for a personal company that he set up.

Adamantopoulos. Bent as dog's hind leg.

During the proceedings, Adamantopoulos claimed that there was a conspiracy between the firm and KPMG and that he had been stitched up. However the SDT held that there was "no merit whatsoever" in this allegation, and ruled that he must not be employed by any UK firm without the permission of the SRA. 

Squire Patton Boggs subsequently notified those clients who had been billed for Adamantopoulos's personal expenses and reimbursed them. A spokesman for the firm wouldn't comment on the judgment.