Who does regulate lawyers?

More regulatory nonsense here. A supporter of mine, Arthur Shuter had written to the Solicitors Regulation Authority complaining about Paul Kavanagh, an HSBC in-house solicitor who worked under the name DG Solicitors, a bogus firm that claimed on their letterhead that they were regulated by the SRA  (arguably a criminal offence).

Furthermore, HSBC wrote to the Treasury Select Committee chair Andrew Tyrie stating that DG Solicitors were regulated by the SRA. They weren’t.

In dealing with Mr Shuter’s complaint the SRA has, of course, brushed it away and their letter contains this extraordinary  passage (click to enlarge):

sra asThis seems to be saying that an in-house lawyer can do what he likes so long as it’s in the name of the bank. If that is the case one would have to go to the Financial Conduct Authority, that well known defender of the public against bank criminality. The FCA would simply say as the complaint involves the actions of a solicitor then the complaint should be made to the SRA.

Incidentally, I have separately written to Kavanagh asking him if he drafted the (dishonest) text that the FCA copied and pasted in response to my Freedom of Information Request and this was his response:

Screen Shot 2015-02-07 at 13.19.50So Kavanagh has got SRA’s message and the bank can do no wrong.