Home secretary Suella Braverman summoned the Solicitors Regulation Authority to a meeting today as the government sought to escalate its high-profile campaign against rogue immigration lawyers. The roundtable, also attended by the lord chancellor and the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner, was billed as the ‘official launch’ of a dedicated taskforce set up to increase enforcement action against lawyers who help migrants exploit the immigration system.

Legal professional bodies, including the Law Society, questioned what was new about the taskforce - and warned against the trap of identifying lawyers with their clients.

Immigration lawyers are at the forefront of the news agenda in what Gazette columnist and Law Society Council member Jonathan Goldsmith today dubs ‘blame the lawyers week’. 

The focus follows the Daily Mail’s investigation into clients appearing to be coached by professional advisers to lie to support asylum claims. Following the article, the lord chancellor wrote to the SRA asking what action was being taken in response and within a week three firms had been shut down and three solicitors prevented from practising.

The government said today that the Professional Enablers Taskforce will develop training for frontline staff in the immigration system to help them identify and report suspect activity. It will also help to build evidence and improve intelligence sharing of any corruption in the legal sector, which will then be passed on to sector bodies to investigate.

According to the government’s announcement, the taskforce has already uncovered a case linking an immigration firm to one of the most wanted human traffickers. It has now been referred to the police.

Braverman said: ‘Crooked immigration lawyers must be rooted out and brought to justice. While the majority of lawyers act with integrity – we know that some are lying to help illegal migrants game the system. It is not right or fair on those who play by the rules. The British people want us to put an end to illegal migration – I am determined to crack down on these immoral lawyers.’

Richard Atkinson, vice president of the Law Society, questioned what exactly the government was announcing as the professional enablers taskforce had been in operation for months. He also pointed out that the government, regulators and law enforcement agencies already have the powers they need to deal with immigration advisers engaged in misconduct.

Atkinson said: ‘The overwhelming majority of immigration lawyers continue to support the rule of law through their adherence to the law and professional standards set by the Solicitors Regulation Authority and provide an essential service to clients. The focus of the Home Office on a tiny minority of lawyers to which they are apparently applying considerable resources should not deflect from the fact that there remains significant backlogs in asylum claims or the unworkability of the Illegal Migration Act.’

Bar chair Nick Vineall KC said: ‘The role of lawyers is to advise and represent their clients whilst observing the ethical and conduct rules which apply to them. If and when lawyers breach those ethical and conduct rules it is right and necessary that they are identified and sanctioned appropriately.’

However he went on to caution: ‘The taskforce must not fall into the trap of identifying lawyers with the causes of their clients, nor should it assume that misbehaviour by clients amounts to misbehaviour by lawyers.’

 

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