§ discipline

Account for interest on client money money

The lawyer must account to the client (or third party) for a fair sum of interest earned on client money held, above any regulatory threshold.

94 cases 71% strike-off avg suspension 8.5 mo avg fine 17,000 19 with dishonesty finding

How the codes express this duty

E&W Solicitors SRA Principles & Code SAR Rule 7.1 strong 69 cases
7.1 You account to clients or third parties for a fair sum of interest on any client money held by you on their behalf.

Solicitors Accounts Rules · 2019 · archived copy · official source ↗

E&W Barristers BSB Handbook no clear equivalent
Cayman Islands Legal Services Code 2026 no clear equivalent
AU Solicitors Solicitors' Conduct Rules no clear equivalent
AU Barristers Uniform Barristers Rules no clear equivalent
IE Solicitors Law Society Guide Ch10 — Interest on client monies strong 21 cases
A solicitor must account to a client for interest earned and/or charged on the client's monies where the amount of interest earned exceeds the amount specified by regulation.

Solicitor's Guide to Professional Conduct (Law Society of Ireland) · 4th ed. (2022) · archived copy · official source ↗

IE Barristers Bar Code of Conduct no clear equivalent
JM Attorneys Canons of Professional Ethics no clear equivalent
JE Lawyers Law Society of Jersey Code no clear equivalent
ON Lawyers LSO Rules of Prof. Conduct no clear equivalent
BC Lawyers BC Code no clear equivalent
NZ Lawyers Conduct & Client Care Rules no clear equivalent
SCO Solicitors LSS Standards of Conduct no clear equivalent
SG Lawyers Professional Conduct Rules 2015 no clear equivalent
HK Solicitors Solicitors' Guide Principle 7.04 Commentary partial
This Principle also applies to the receipt by a solicitor of, for example, interest on client accounts, commissions received from insurance companies and agents and from stock brokers and from estate agents.

Hong Kong Solicitors' Guide to Professional Conduct (Volume 1) · current · archived copy · official source ↗

HK Barristers Bar Code of Conduct no clear equivalent

Cases dealing with this duty

Clear

94 decisions · link basis: found breached = a tribunal finding; rule cited = the mapped provision is cited in the decision; text match = high-precision text pattern

Duty classification does not yet cover every jurisdiction (Ontario, New Zealand and Singapore decisions are indexed but not yet duty-classified), so counts here understate those corpora.