As we awaited the results of the Law Society’s absurdly long investigations into whether Allen & Overy (A&O) and Freshfields Bruckhaus Derigner had breached the conflict of interest rules, I became aware of a potentially ludicrous situation.
If the Law Society had decided that yes, the firms had breached the rules, but no, the breaches were not serious enough to merit a referral to the Solicitors’ Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT), the two firms would have received a private rebuke. This would have put the Law Society in a difficult position, given the fact that Legal Week had reported the existence of these investigations.
