Giambrone: Did not think he had to repeat disclosures
The high-profile Italian lawyer heavily fined for failing to declare adverse findings about himself when applying to be called to the Bar said he had already done so when joining Lincoln’s Inn some months earlier.
We reported earlier this month that Gabriele Giambrone, Milan-based global managing partner of Giambrone & Partners and head of its European litigation and arbitration team, was reprimanded and fined £50,000 after admitting five of the six charges that he made a false call declaration.
These included being suspended for six months by the Bar Association of Palermo, adverse comments about him made by a High Court judge in a negligence case, and a freezing injunction against his personal assets made as part of a claim against him in Northern Ireland.
The full ruling of the Bar disciplinary tribunal has now been published and recorded that, in November 2020 Mr Giambrone applied for admission to Lincoln’s Inn.
“His application was considered by a screening committee and then by the inn’s conduct committee, and it was determined, without a full hearing, that he was a fit and proper person to practise as a barrister.”
He was told on 1 April 2021 and signed the call declaration on 22 June, before being called that October.
Mr Giambrone told the tribunal that he had already disclosed matters in his application to join Lincoln’s Inn and that he understood from the 1 April letter that he did not need to repeat them in the call declaration.
“He gave further, more detailed explanations for the individual matters referred to in the charges and apologised for the omissions alleged,” the ruling said.
Counsel for the Bar Standards Board told the panel that dishonesty was not alleged against Mr Giambrone, “but rather that he had made some deliberate omissions in his call declaration which were misleading and therefore discreditable”.
His Honour James Meston KC, chair of the panel, said it was not asked to determine, and felt unable to do so, whether or not Mr Giambrone would have been called to the Bar “if he had fully disclosed all the matters omitted or if those matters had in fact already been known about”.
The panel decided that a “substantial” fine was justified but the misconduct did not require removing or restricting Mr Giambrone’s continued practice. He is described on the BSB’s register as an employed barrister at his firm’s London office.
