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Law-firm manager banned by SRA over duty failures

A manager of a British law firm was which almost insolvent has been banned by the England and Wales Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) for failing to uphold duties.

Victoria Powell, head of finance and administration at Liverpool firm High Street Solicitors, failed to tell the regulator it was subject to a winding-up order, it has emerged.

Powell also substantially underplayed the extent of the business’s debts in meetings with the regulator.

The claims practice has creditors collectively owed more than £35 million and has now seen at least 70 jobs lost.

No money received

Administrators said in January that no money had been received from any of the work in progress handed over when the firm folded in June 2023, the England and Wales Gazette reports.

In the first disciplinary case stemming from the firm’s collapse, the SRA prosecuted former legal cashier Powell, who had taken up the role as head of finance in November 2021.

The regulator had started a forensic investigation into the firm in early 2023 after receiving reports that it was failing to meet financial commitments.

The SRA met Powell and one of the firm’s managers on 7 February, where it was told that debts came to around £4 million.

A schedule of liabilities and loan agreements disclosed later that month showed that these balances actually came to more than £26 million.

In April 2023, the firm’s representatives told an SRA forensic investigator that no decision had been taken about the future.

Debt

One day later, the investigator discovered that the firm had in fact been subject to a winding-up order resulting from an outstanding debt of £340,000.

The regulator later expressed concern that Powell “didn’t have any idea about what was going on”.

Powell accepted that she should have reported matters but said that she tried her best in her role as head of finance.

The SRA said Powell had shown she was unsuitable to hold responsibility for compliance roles in a law firm. She agreed to be disqualified and to pay £600 costs.