UK Lawyer Who Made $25M in a Year is ‘Struck Off’ for Exploiting Clients

Last year, Jim Beresford made headlines as the United Kingdom's highest-paid solicitor, having found a lucrative practice niche representing sick coal miners. Today, after a six-day hearing by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, he was struck off for taking advantage of his clients.

Another attorney from his small law firm, Doug Smith, also was removed from the solicitors list today, after the two "were found to have acted with 'conscious impropriety' in their dealings with a mining union which handed their law firm, Beresfords, thousands of industrial disease compensation claims," reports the London Times.

The two had denied exploiting elderly, ailing miners and insisted that the substantial legal fees they earned from these representations were appropriate. But the tribunal found otherwise, the newspaper reports. It determined, among other findings, that Beresford, 58, and Smith, 51, entered into a "dubious" secret deal in 2002 that involved paying hundreds of thousands of pounds to a company owned by an employee of the Union of Democratic Mineworkers and had not acted in the best interest of their clients.

The two were found guilty by the tribunal of nine charges of misconduct related to their violation of legal ethics rules.

Beresfords plans to appeal the findings to the High Court, reports the Lawyer.

"As the SD(T) has said, this is not about negligence or any criminal prosecution," Martin Ryan, the law firm's managing partner, tells the legal publication, pointing out that the firm has obtained £221 million in compensation for miners. Additionally, "(i)t must be noted that, as was mentioned in the tribunal, client money was not misappropriated," he states.

Earlier ABAJournal.com coverage:

UK Lawyer Made $25M in a Year, Now He Is Focus of Legal-Fees Controversy

Updated at 4:05 p.m. to include information from the Lawyer.