Christopher Tomos Hale

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

Christopher Tomos Hale, sole director and shareholder of Rohrer & Co (formerly Bracewell Law), failed to control his firm and allowed non-solicitors Mr and Mrs H to run it. He caused the firm to accept over £8 million from the Axiom Legal Financing Fund and misused the funds contrary to the funding agreements, paying large sums to Mr and Mrs H and associates and making dubious investments. He assisted misuse of the funds, permitted funds through firm accounts without underlying legal transactions, gave false/misleading/delayed information to the SRA, and failed to carry out due diligence on ATE insurer Frion. The Tribunal found all allegations proved and found dishonesty (admitted, applying Twinsectra) from after August 2012 in relation to allegations 1.2, 1.4 and 1.5. Finding no exceptional circumstances, the Tribunal struck him off the Roll and ordered costs of £20,838.97.

Duties found breached:

• Firm governance, systems and compliance
• Integrity
• No conflict between current clients
• Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank
• Not misrepresent regulated status
• Uphold public trust in the profession

Aggravating factors:

• Proven and admitted dishonesty
• Misconduct continued over a significant period of time
• Failure to act when he became aware of the questionable nature of those he was working with
• Significant harm to investors who lost money and to the reputation of the profession
• Allowed misappropriation of over £8 million of client/investor funds, mostly unrecovered

Mitigating factors:

• No prior disciplinary record / previously unblemished
• Full cooperation with the SRA from outset
• Genuine insight and remorse, apologised to those affected
• No prior experience of running a practice, financial management or litigation funding
• Reliant on and misled by trusted non-solicitors (Mr and Mrs H)
• Motivation not primarily personal gain
• Continuing to pay instalments for intervention costs despite limited means
• Naive rather than actively fraudulent