Yasar Malik

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

Yasar Malik, a non-solicitor employee and COFA of Quick Solicitors from 16 October 2017, admitted failing to ensure the Firm's compliance with the SAR 2011 and failing to report breaches to the SRA, in breach of Rule 8.5 of the SRA Authorisation Rules 2011 and Principles 6 and 7. He was aware of the Firm's financial position and the ongoing SRA investigation when appointed but made no enquiries, did not know how to conduct three-way reconciliations, and his misconduct continued over a period of time. The Tribunal found his conduct was manifestly incompetent and that it was undesirable for him to be involved in legal practice except with SRA permission. The matter was resolved on the papers by agreed outcome. A Section 43 order was made and he was ordered to pay costs of £2,500 (reduced from total costs of £10,000 due to means). No dishonesty was alleged or found.

Duties found breached:

• Firm governance, systems and compliance
• Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank

Aggravating factors:

• Misconduct continued over a period of time (16 October 2017 to 31 May 2018) despite being forewarned of the previous COFA's concerns
• He knew or ought reasonably to have known the conduct was in material breach of obligations to protect the public and the reputation of the profession
• Manifest incompetence (admitted)
• High culpability

Mitigating factors:

• No prior experience of the COFA role (not agreed by the SRA)
• Underestimated the role and believed his position was temporary (not agreed by the SRA)
• Wanted to resign as COFA but continued until a replacement could be found (not agreed by the SRA)
• Periods of ill health during his time as COFA (not agreed by the SRA)