Two paralegals who appeared to tout for business around the remains of the Grenfell Tower fire have resigned from the firm.

Human rights practice Leigh Day opted to suspend the employees, Harnita Rai and Sejal Sachania, over the weekend, after it emerged that they had put their names to a poster promoting their services to victims of the disaster in its immediate aftermath.

The posters, displayed around the Grenfell Tower site, did not name Leigh Day but did say that a third party ‘may charge for their services’.

Leigh Day started a formal investigation as soon as the posters were brought to its attention, and the firm confirmed today that both paralegals have tendered their resignation before this investigation has been completed.

A spokesman for the firm said: ‘We are clear that neither of the individuals have supplied any names to the firm as potential clients and Leigh Day was not the “third party” referred to in the posters. Leigh Day supports many official external pro bono initiatives, and continues to support voluntary work in which many of our staff are involved.’

The issue brought unwelcome attention on the London firm, which was cleared last month of misconduct charges at the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal in relation to historic claims against the Ministry of Defence.

The story was front page news in Saturday’s Times newspaper and was picked up by national media the same day.

Leigh Day stated that neither of the individuals named by the Times had supplied any names to the firm as potential clients from this tragedy, and the firm would never have given authority for the posters or their display.