SRA: “Mr Sultan is not involved”

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has taken the unusual step of restoring a solicitor’s practising certificate after discovering that he was not a partner in a law firm that was the subject of an intervention.

LG Law Chambers, based in London’s East End, was closed by the SRA at the end of last month. The firm specialised in immigration advice, along with family, employment, private client and general civil litigation.

At the time the SRA said one of the grounds for the intervention was “reason to suspect dishonesty” on the part of one of the partners, Ejaz Ahmed.

The other reason cited by the regulator was the alleged failure of Kashif Sultan, also a partner, to comply with the SRA Accounts Rules and SRA Principles. Both solicitors’ practising certificates were suspended with immediate effect.

But in a fresh decision notice on its website, dated last week, the SRA said it was now satisfied that Mr Sultan “is not and never has been a partner with Mr Ejaz Ahmad in the firm of LG Law Chambers”.

The SRA said an adjudicator had resolved that the original decision of 30 October 2015 should be varied so that “all references” to Mr Sultan “be disregarded” and he is “treated as being in the position he would have been in if the decision of 30 October had not been made”.

However, the adjudicator also resolved that the decision of 30 October in respect of Mr Ahmad and LG Law Chambers should be unaffected.

The SRA concluded that “by virtue of the decision, Mr Sultan’s practising certificate has been restored with immediate effect.”

A spokesman for the SRA told Legal Futures: “The information given to us by the firm showed Mr Sultan as a partner. It was only once we had intervened into the firm that we discovered that the information was inaccurate and that Mr Sultan is not involved.”