A Court of Appeal decision on a law firm’s failure to warn holiday home investors about the risk of potential Mafia involvement provides ‘clear lessons’ on the scope of their duties to their clients, lawyers say.
The firm involved was held liable after a £400m Mafia money-laundering operation ruined their investment, in Main & Ors v Giambrone & Law [2017] EWCA Civ 1193.
Writing in NLJ this week, David Niven, partner, and David O’Brien, senior associate, Penningtons Manches, say: ‘Giambrone is the first case where solicitors have been held liable for the full consequences of their failure to properly advise their clients of the risks involved in a purchase, and to conduct the matter in a manner so as to protect the purchasers from those risks.
In particular, conveyancers who undertake wider obligations than the usual stand warned that they may find themselves liable for their clients’ wider losses should they breach those obligations.’
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