A High Court judge has slammed Pinsent Masons for "shameful" correspondence when dealing with the death of a businessman on the opposite side of a case.
Russian airline Aeroflot instructed Pinsent Masons in a litigious matter against businessmen Nikolay Glushkov and Boris Berezovsky (both now deceased) who were accused of swindling a huge amount of cash from the company.
Glushkov died in his home in Surrey in March this year, and Subir Desai of Charles Douglas Solicitors was appointed to represent his estate. On 12 April Desai provided a witness statement to the court saying that Glushkov's daughter and civil partner had both been trying to work out how best to deal with the case, whilst also coping with their bereavement. Desai added that the pair believed that the Glushkov's estate was unlikely to be worth more than £250,000. Pinsent Masons wrote to Desai later that day demanding to know further details about the estate "by return", in a letter that a judge has now branded as "shameful".
In the costs ruling for the case this month, Mrs Justice Rose said that Pinsents Masons "effectively berates" Glushkov's daughter and civil partner for failing to come forward sooner. Rose said that the City firm put forward in its letter "many intrusive and hectoring questions" regarding the will and assets of the estate. She added that whilst high-value litigation was hard fought, it was "out of the norm" for a law firm to "lose sight of any basic standard of decent and compassionate behaviour as to send a letter in those terms".
Justice Rose ordered that Aeroflot pay all the defendants' costs for the proceedings, to be assessed on an indemnity basis.
A Pinsent Masons spokesman told RollOnFriday that “for a number of years we have been assisting Aeroflot in pursuing a claim against various individuals and companies, alleging that a serious and complex fraud has taken place". He added that it was the firm's sole objective "to help our client discover the truth of these matters. Mr Glushkov’s tragic death has been truly saddening and we have been sensitive to this during our subsequent conduct of the litigation.”
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Russian airline Aeroflot instructed Pinsent Masons in a litigious matter against businessmen Nikolay Glushkov and Boris Berezovsky (both now deceased) who were accused of swindling a huge amount of cash from the company.
Glushkov died in his home in Surrey in March this year, and Subir Desai of Charles Douglas Solicitors was appointed to represent his estate. On 12 April Desai provided a witness statement to the court saying that Glushkov's daughter and civil partner had both been trying to work out how best to deal with the case, whilst also coping with their bereavement. Desai added that the pair believed that the Glushkov's estate was unlikely to be worth more than £250,000. Pinsent Masons wrote to Desai later that day demanding to know further details about the estate "by return", in a letter that a judge has now branded as "shameful".
In the costs ruling for the case this month, Mrs Justice Rose said that Pinsents Masons "effectively berates" Glushkov's daughter and civil partner for failing to come forward sooner. Rose said that the City firm put forward in its letter "many intrusive and hectoring questions" regarding the will and assets of the estate. She added that whilst high-value litigation was hard fought, it was "out of the norm" for a law firm to "lose sight of any basic standard of decent and compassionate behaviour as to send a letter in those terms".
| A Pinsent Masons' lawyer mourns |
A Pinsent Masons spokesman told RollOnFriday that “for a number of years we have been assisting Aeroflot in pursuing a claim against various individuals and companies, alleging that a serious and complex fraud has taken place". He added that it was the firm's sole objective "to help our client discover the truth of these matters. Mr Glushkov’s tragic death has been truly saddening and we have been sensitive to this during our subsequent conduct of the litigation.”
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https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/03/13/russian-businessman-close-associate-ofboris-berezovsky-found/
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So convincing...