Hogan Lovells dismisses senior litigator over £1m of false expenses
Hogan Lovells senior litigator Christopher Grierson has been dismissed from the partnership after claiming over £1m in false expenses over the course of four years.
Following an internal investigation that was set in motion at the beginning of this year, Grierson was dismissed last week and has now been reported to the SRA.
Partners were informed over the weekend while the rest of the firm was told of Grierson’s dismissal yesterday.
A spokesperson at the firm said that Grierson had co-operated fully with the firm’s inquiries and has agreed to repay the full £1m within 14 days.
The spokesperson added: “An investigation carried out by the firm has revealed that no clients were affected as a result of Christopher’s actions.
“Christopher acted entirely on his own. He was a long-standing partner in the firm and highly regarded. We’re very saddened and concerned by these events, which represent a major breach of trust.
“We’re very clear as to our professional responsibilities as solicitors and we’ve promptly taken the appropriate action.”
Grierson, who is in his late fifties and who was on legacy firm Lovells’ partnership council from 2006 to April 2009, is a distinguished international litigator. His recent cases have included advising AAR, the consortium made up of Russian conglomerates Alfaa Group, Access Industries and Renova Group, on its dispute on the TNK-BP energy venture in Russia.
He is best known for having advised BCCI liquidators Deloitte & Touche for over a decade. That work came to an end after Deloitte’s controversial £850m claim against the Bank of England sensationally collapsed in November 2005 (7 November 2005).
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Readers' comments (95)
Dumpy Dempster | 18-May-2011 12:01 pm
I see that the story has now been picked up by the Daily Mail...
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Anon | 18-May-2011 12:28 pm
@Thor - you don't need to know who they money's been stolen from for the offence of theft, only that it's not his own money.
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Nick | 18-May-2011 2:30 pm
The fact of the matter is that this is not the end of a distinguished career. His career ended four years ago when he started to defraud his partners. The fact he deceived so many of his colleagues, and many of them have not quite picked up on this and have posted on here telling everyone what a great guy he is, is fascinating. You should be thinking - how could he? Not in the sense that there was some external force that must have compelled him to do this, but in the sense that ho can have have been so rotten to the core yet no-one in this organisation of bright, brilliant people had seen through him in four years...
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City gent | 18-May-2011 2:54 pm
If this is proven (and for now quite frankly I regard it as mere tittle tattle) then Grierson will go down as being a gentleman thief in the same mould as that wonderful fictional creation Raffles, and if anything should be congratulated for bringing some gay colour to these commentators drab little lives.
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Anonymous | 18-May-2011 3:29 pm
Christopher Grierson, the Bernard Madoff of the London legal profession. To all those elitists who profess to Christopher being a gentleman, you're probably doing/have done/intend on doing the same...
Coming from an industry that advises on putting such criminals behind bars, the lawyers come out in droves to defend the criminal...the fact that he's offered to pay the £1M back in two weeks shows his guilt.
Otherwise, wouldn't he be mounting a defence challenge now?
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Anonymous | 18-May-2011 3:31 pm
What is all the fuss about. This fellow travelled widely and obviously had very substantial expenses. i think we can all sympathise if he mislaid receipts here or there.
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Anonymous | 18-May-2011 4:44 pm
So a CC cashier (ie lowly support staff) is jailed for stealing just £63k but this guy walks away after stealing £1m. Justice anyone ?????
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Anonymous | 18-May-2011 4:53 pm
Why do politicians who cheat on their expenses go to jail whereas lawyers just get dismissed? Surely there was 'intent to permanently deprive' in this instance.
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Anon | 18-May-2011 4:56 pm
This man is despicable and should be put in prison for a long time.
Some of the attitudes above are truly disgusting, and the people expressing them would no doubt be the first to want to prosecute a homeless person who stole food from a shop.
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Kim Kardashian | 18-May-2011 5:01 pm
In one City firm I used to work for a PA got the sack for taking 1 batch of printer paper and they got reported to the police. Yet all the posh boys on here think this guy did nothing more than take an extra crispy crème from the box in the kitchen. Regarding the partner, I recall a quote from a movie - "the greatest trick the devil pulled was convincing the world that he didn't exist." The clue is in the comments - a nice partner - I have never met one of them - most of them are vermin - if one is actually nice then that should have raised suspicions.
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