A Q Butt and S Veeravagu

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

Mr Abdul Qayyum Butt, a registered foreign lawyer, and Mr Selliah Veeravagu, a solicitor, faced allegations of conduct unbefitting their respective statuses arising from the practice A Q Butt & Co. The Tribunal found all allegations substantiated. Mr Butt appeared as an advocate without a right of audience, provided substandard work in child care proceedings, used misleading stationery breaching the Publicity Code, operated without effective supervision under Rule 13, falsely held out partnerships, made misleading statements to the OSS, failed to pay surety monies into a client account, failed to deliver Accountant's Reports, and was late obtaining indemnity cover. Mr Butt was struck off the Register of Foreign Lawyers and Mr Veeravagu struck off the Roll (the latter following four conjoined cases). Although the Tribunal commented that Mr Butt's approach of apparent (but not actual) compliance was 'in itself a dishonest approach,' it made no formal finding of dishonesty against either respondent on the allegations.

Duties found breached:

• No abuse of process or coercive powers
• No improper communication with the court
• Not mislead third parties or opponents
• No conflict between current clients
• No improper use of client money
• Professional indemnity insurance
• Report serious misconduct of others
• No improper solicitation or touting