Howarth: Management ban
The man who founded now-defunct Stobart Barristers and then bought two well-known criminal law firms has been disqualified from running a law firm in future.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has issued an order under section 99 of the Legal Services Act 2007 after finding that non-lawyer Trevor Howarth misused disbursement money from the Legal Aid Agency.
This means he cannot be the head of legal practice, head of finance and administration (HOFA) or a manager of an alternative business structure (ABS).
Stobart Barristers – which provided legal advice from barristers directly to the public – ended in 2014 after Mr Howarth, who had been the trucking group’s legal director, left to run an ABS called One Legal. He was its director, owner and manager.
His original aim was to challenge the standard criminal law firm model, centralising the back-office function and providing a bespoke IT and case management solution.
One Legal subsequently acquired London firms Kaim Todner and Guney Clarke & Ryan, but 80 staff lost their jobs in December 2019 when the business went into administration due to cash flow problems.
An SRA notice published yesterday said that between December 2019 and May 2020, it received complaints alleging that the firm had failed to pay invoices submitted by expert witnesses.
An investigation found a minimum client account shortage at the firm of £54,000 at the time the business went under. That was what it had received from the Legal Aid Agency over the previous 20 months to pay 36 expert fees incurred on legally aided criminal matters.
However, the money was not used to pay the experts or transferred to client account, as it should have been; instead it went to the firm’s business bank account, from where the week after One Legal went bust Mr Howarth transferred £77,000 to the administrator.
This was in breach of multiple SRA principles and rules. The regulator said this made it “undesirable” for him to hold the management roles in an ABS.
Meanwhile, Richard Botting, who was the HOFA of One Legal, has also been disqualified for the same reasons, although his ban extends to being an employee too.
As HOFA, the SRA added, “Mr Botting failed to run the business with effective systems and controls to ensure compliance with the SRA’s regulatory arrangements which were in force at the time and/or in accordance with sound financial and risk management principles”.
Both men were also directed to pay costs of £1,350 each.
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