Brooke: Three main allegations
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has referred SSB Group co-founder Jeremy Brooke to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, some 18 months after completing its investigation into the firm’s collapse.
A notice published today said the decision was taken in June and made three main allegations.
First is that, from mid 2022 to January 2024, Mr Brooke failed to ensure that any or all of the clients in appeals to the Court of Appeal were appraised of the adverse costs risks so that each could make “fully informed decisions” as to the risks and benefits of their appeals.
Second, from July 2022 to October 2023, he failed to report to the SRA that there were “indicators of serious financial difficulty relating to the firm, and/or significant ongoing prejudice and/or risk of prejudice to its clients”.
Third, from November 2021 to around March 2023, “he encouraged, allowed and/or directed the issue of cavity wall insulation claims with a value stated as being up to £10,000, notwithstanding that (i) he was aware, or ought to have been aware, that this was misleading, since neither he nor the firm knew what the value of the claim was, and/or (ii) he ought to have been aware it would be necessary for an employee of the firm to sign a statement of truth which would in the premises be misleading”.
The allegations are as yet unproven.
Since November 2024, Mr Brooke has been under interim conditions on his practising certificate that prevent him from being a compliance officer, owner or manager of any SRA-regulated law firms, and from carrying on legal activities or supervising others carrying on legal activities “in connection with the provision of litigation or any claims work involving conditional fee agreements or damages-based agreements”.
These same conditions were subsequently placed on three other solicitors who were at SSB: director Debra Allen; Lucy Flynn, who headed the Japanese Knotweed department; and David Toyn, who led the team dealing with mis-sold investment schemes.
But the SRA said that, having considered the findings of its investigation, it decided that no action should be taken against any of them and the conditions have been removed.
It is 18 months since the SRA announced that it had completed its investigation into the collapse of SSB Law and issued disciplinary notices to “a number of individuals”.
In February 2025, the SRA said those people would be given the opportunity to respond to the allegations, after which a decision-maker would determine the next steps, such as no further action, an internal sanction or referral to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.
It said the aim was to make decisions “before the summer” – of 2025, that is. We have asked the SRA why the process has taken this long.
Mr Brooke (the ‘B’ of SSB, originally Simpson Sissons & Brooke) was the chief executive and figurehead as the firm grew throughout the 2010s by diversifying away from personal injury into other areas of volume claims.
He told our PI Futures conference in 2022:“I’m a fan of Duncan Bannatyne. I look for an existing market, get into that market and try and do it better than other people.” It is not believed that he is practising at the moment.
In December 2025, Wesley Bower and Steven Westwood, who were non-solicitor directors of SSB Group, were disqualified from working in the profession after the SRA found they had been dishonest.
It said they shared in the responsibility for policy decisions taken by SSB, alongside the “systematic failures” of the firm.
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