The Law Soc Gazette
he fallout from the collapse of Liverpool claims firm High Street Solicitors has continued, with the first sanction issued against a solicitor.
Sarah Kearney agreed a three-month suspension with the Solicitors Regulation Authority after admitting to failing to disclose details about the dire finances of the firm in 2023.
Kearney, admitted in 2012, was appointed as director of High Street Solicitors in March 2022. By that time, a creditor of the firm had already complained to the SRA that expert fees had not been paid. Checks by a debt recovery agency then found three unsatisfied county court judgments against the firm coming to more than £50,000.
The SRA sent an investigator into the practice in January 2023 and met Kearney and her fellow director Thomas Hardwick. The investigator recorded that no concerns were expressed about the firm’s finances and that they were assured any issues were ‘mainly historic’ and ‘from our point of view we are now doing very well’.
In a follow-up meeting with the investigator in April 2023, attended by Kearney, there was no mention that the firm was in serious financial trouble.
In fact, by that stage, two winding up petitions had been issued and the firm was six weeks away from going into administration. The firm had total liabilities of more than £5.3m by the end of 2022 and borrowed around £17m. No details of any funding arrangement borrowing were disclosed to the SRA investigator at the January 2023 meeting.
Read more
