Header Image: Nadhim Zahawi
Legal Cheek (UK)
A partner at Osborne Clarke has been fined £50,000 and ordered to pay a hefty £260,000 in costs after a disciplinary tribunal found he breached regulatory rules in a “without prejudice” email to a former Magic Circle partner turned tax blogger.
The matter dates back to the summer of 2022, when Osborne Clarke’s head of client strategy, Ashley Simon Hurst, was advising then-Conservative party chairman Nadhim Zahawi on reputational matters amid high-levels of media scrutiny over his tax affairs.
The tribunal heard that Hurst sent an email, marked “without prejudice”, to Dan Neidle — a former Clifford Chance partner and head of the think tank Tax Policy Associates — following Neidle’s public claims that Zahawi was providing unsatisfactory answers. The email also said Neidle was “not entitled to publish it or refer to it other than for the purposes of seeking legal advice”.
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Osborne Clarke lawyer fined £50k over Nadhim Zahawi ‘without prejudice’ email
