Leading firms are brazenly flouting the Law Society’s conflict of interest rules in the belief they are irrelevant and unworkable, according to new research.

More than two-thirds of a sample of top 100 firms, surveyed by Bristol University lecturer Janine Griffiths-Baker, were found to be breaking the rules in order to continue acting for their clients. Griffiths-Baker’s findings were based on the responses of 30 firms to five examples of conflict situations.