QURAT UL AIN AKBAR

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

Qurat Ul Ain Akbar, a registered foreign lawyer and partner at Southall Solicitors, was found to have made false and misleading statements to SRA forensic investigators, to the High Court and intervention agents during an investigation into the firm's re-commencement of practice in 2018. She falsely stated the firm held no practice papers and had no clients, failed to comply with s44B notices, falsely claimed partner Mr Faraque had agreed to and supported the firm's activities and her court application, and failed to swear/serve a required affidavit. The Tribunal found dishonesty proved on allegations 1.1-1.5 (breaching Principles 1, 2, 6, 7 and Outcome 5.1), but found dishonesty not proved on allegation 1.6 (the affidavit omission), instead finding recklessness. The Tribunal found her misconduct at the highest level with no exceptional circumstances, struck her off the Register of Foreign Lawyers, and ordered costs of £24,000 (reduced from £48,000 assessed, by 50% for limited means).

Duties found breached:

• Act in the client's best interests
• Handle inadvertently received material
• Integrity
• Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank
• Not mislead the court

Aggravating factors:

• Dishonesty
• Misconduct was deliberate, calculated and repeated
• Misconduct continued over a period of time
• Concealment of wrongdoing throughout (including clearing the office between visits)
• Sought to deflect blame onto Mr Faraque
• Knew she was in material breach of obligations

Mitigating factors:

• No previous disciplinary findings