Who’s Afraid Of The Big Bad Banks?

The answer, according to The Lawyer of 27 September, is all the major firms of solicitors. When the Brascan consortium sought to stop Canary Wharf selling off £1.1bn of property to the Royal Bank of Scotland, it was unable to find any City law firm to help it. All the firms on the RBS panel sign their tender documents stating: ‘Due to the close nature of our relationship and the fact that you are, or will become, privy to much confidential information concerning the Group, we would be unable to continue instructing you if you were to commence or threaten to commence litigation against any member of the Group.’ The Lawyer report continued that when Brascan turned to other, uninvolved firms none would act against the RBS and eventually the consortium went straight to the Bar for advice. The report concludes that any company wishing to sue one of the UK’s big five clearing banks will now find it virtually impossible to instruct a top law firm, who will either be on the bank’s panel, or aspire to be on it.