James Mulholland
ONE of Scotland’s top lawyers who acted for the woman raped by footballers David Goodwillie and David Robertson has failed in his bid to stop a legal order that prevents him from working as a solicitor.
Cameron Fyfe instructed a QC to argue in the Court of Session that the Scottish Solicitors Discipline Tribunal (SSDT) should not have struck him off from a roll of legal professionals.
The solicitor, who recently acted for rape victim Denise Clair, was found guilty of professional misconduct in September 2016 for breaching strict accountancy rules governing how lawyers are supposed to handle money meant for third parties.
The tribunal concluded Mr Fyfe, a former partner in the now-defunct law firm Ross Harper, also signed an accounts statement in May 2010 for the firm.
It found Mr Fyfe knew the financial statement was “inaccurate and from which the true financial position of the firm was not evident to the Law Society of Scotland”.
Mr Fyfe’s legal team argued the decision to remove his name from the solicitors’ roll was “grossly disproportionate” to the circumstances of the case and the court should reverse the finding.
However, in a written judgment issued at the Edinburgh-based civil court yesterday, judges Lady Dorrian, Lord Bracadale and Lord Drummond Young ruled in favour of the SSDT.
In the judgment, Lady Dorrian, Scotland’s second most senior judge, wrote: “In our opinion, the tribunal was entitled to consider that the range of options was restricted to suspension or removal and, on the facts of the case, its conclusion that removal was the appropriate sanction is not one which we could describe as inappropriate or disproportionate.
“In these circumstances the appeal will be refused.”
Mr Fyfe was a partner in the Glasgow-based firm that went bust in 2012. He was once named by a Sunday newspaper in 2002 as being the 40th most powerful person in Scotland.
A daily newspaper once ran a profile about Mr Fyfe that described him as being the “best lawman in the west”.
Most recently, he acted for Denise Clair who was awarded £100,000 in damages after judge Lord Armstrong ruled she had been raped by Goodwillie and Robertson.
The SSDT found Mr Fyfe guilty of professional misconduct over the way finances at Ross Harper were handled.
The tribunal found Mr Fyfe “permitted to be operated or acquiesced in a policy whereby the business ... was improperly funded by payments due to third parties”.
The tribunal heard payments “in the region” of £70,000 were supposed to be made to an Edinburgh based law firm. But the cash was only paid when the company took action over the unpaid sum.
The tribunal also found Mr Fyfe signed an inaccurate accounts statement, breaching guidelines.
Last night, a friend of Mr Fyfe’s said: “Cameron left Ross Harper because he felt the firm was being mismanaged and now feels that he is being punished for that mismanagement.”
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