Zaheer Ahmad

Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision

Zaheer Ahmad, a barrister, was found to have committed professional misconduct under CD5 and rC8 by failing to comply with a Wandsworth County Court order of 22 October 2015 requiring him to pay £54,595.39 plus £9,416.50 costs to a former salaried partner, Mr H. He did not begin paying until May 2023 and pursued numerous unsuccessful appeals, deliberately prolonging proceedings hoping the judgment would become unenforceable. The Tribunal found the misconduct in the middle range of seriousness. Although the Tribunal found deliberate conduct and lack of integrity, it made no express finding of dishonesty against him. He was suspended for six months concurrent on both charges and ordered to pay £2,496 costs to the BSB.

Duties found breached:

• Disclose adverse law to the court
• No conflict between current clients

Aggravating factors:

• Intentional and sustained misconduct over a number of years
• Sole responsibility for the circumstances giving rise to the misconduct
• Failure to admit that non-compliance amounted to professional misconduct; lack of insight
• Large judgment debt (over £50,000) with substantial amount remaining unpaid
• Non-compliance continued from 2015 to date, keeping the claimant out of his money for many years
• Concerns about reliability of his evidence on income/outgoings and prioritising other expenditure over paying the debt
• Lack of remorse
• Experienced professional (barrister, sole practitioner solicitor, judicial appointment in Pakistan)
• Previous disciplinary finding in 2014 (reprimand)

Mitigating factors:

• Paid £42,500 by January 2024 and a further £5,000 subsequently towards the debt
• Stated intention to pay the debt in full by instalments
• Co-operated with the BSB investigation (with caveat)
• Personal circumstances: married with four children, prior ill health in 2019 (kidney donation to mother), family matters overseas