The Court of Appeal has recently considered whether accountants who reported to the Law Society on the accounts of a firm of solicitors, in accordance with the requirements of the Solicitors Act 1974, owed a duty of care to the Law Society in its capacity as the regulator of solicitors and as trustee of the Compensation Fund.
Accountancy firm KPMG prepared the annual reports on the accounts of Durnford Ford, a solicitors’ firm in East Sussex. Such reports were intended to alert the Law Society to possible improprieties, which would enable it to intervene early and protect the fund that it maintains.
