Lawyer Soophia Khan is mounting a bid to return to the solicitor profession after she was struck off for ‘dishonestly’ settling two former clients’ claims without their knowledge and failing to cooperate with the Solicitors Regulation Authority and the legal ombudsman (LeO).
All 12 allegations against Khan – who was jailed for contempt of court in January – were found proven last month by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, which struck her off the roll and ordered her to pay nearly £110,000 in costs.
The tribunal found that Khan, a former chair of the Law Society Civil Justice Committee, acted dishonestly in settling her former clients’ damages and costs claims without telling them. She was also dishonest in breaching an undertaking to London firm McMillan Williams, where she worked before leaving to set up Leicester-based practice Sophie Khan & Co in 2013, by settling the costs claims without notifying them, the SDT ruled.
Rupert Allen, for the SRA, told the tribunal that Khan paid a £100,000 cheque directly into her firm’s office account, despite McMillan Williams having a ‘significant amount of work in progress on the case’.
Khan, 42, further failed to cooperate with the SRA and the LeO in relation to complaints made by a third former client, failed to comply with a court order obtained by the SRA for production of documents and failed to hand over files in breach of two High Court orders, the tribunal found.
Khan is now seeking a rehearing of the case against her, with an application due to be heard by the tribunal next Friday. She told the Gazette that the tribunal’s decision was a ‘massive shock’, adding: ‘I was absolutely gobsmacked when they came back with those findings.’
She also vowed to challenge the decision to strike her off before the tribunal or the High Court, saying: ‘I will fight because I want my practising certificate back.’
The news continues Khan’s long-running row with the SRA, which intervened into Sophie Khan & Co over a year ago and has since taken her to the High Court on several occasions.
In October, the regulator sought to gain access to the firm’s files and in November obtained an injunction to prevent her from ‘unlawfully’ acting as a lawyer through a charity called Just for Public.
A warrant was issued for her arrest that month after she failed to attend court to answer allegations of contempt, which were found proved and saw Khan jailed in HMP Bronzefield in Surrey.
Khan mounted an unsuccessful appeal against her custodial sentence and also challenged the SRA’s intervention, which the High Court held was ‘necessary and proportionate for the protection of clients’.
