PM Law Group, comprising 11 companies, 26 offices and more than 30 trading names, collapsed in February. Jenner & Block reported two forensic investigations by Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) officers took place in 2023 and 2025, but the officer who conducted the 2025 investigation was not told of the 2023 investigation. There was also an anti-money laundering inspection, a thematic review visit and numerous reports about group entities.
That knowledge, however, ‘was fractured’, the review concluded last week.
‘It was distributed across different teams, systems and individuals, and was never drawn together into a single, composite picture of the risk the Group presented. Information that should have been shared was not... Investigators handling parallel live matters were not coordinated... and no one at executive, board or even deputy executive director level was aware or informed of the risks the Group posed before February 2026’.
Red flags highlighted in the report included ‘a significant volume of client-to-office account transfers, a £2m transfer through the client, office and conveyancing accounts on 30 December 2024, indications of mobile banking transactions, and outgoing client-account payments described as direct debits. The investigation closed with a “no concerns” finding’.
Anna Bradley, SRA chair, said the board was ‘disappointed that we missed opportunities to act on PM law sooner’.
In 2024, the SRA was heavily criticised in an independent report by Carson McDowell for its failures regarding Axiom Ince, which had collapsed the previous year with £64m client money missing.
Law Society president Mark Evans said: ‘Once again, the profession as a whole—solicitors and law firms—has had to shoulder the financial consequences through a substantial increase in contributions to the Compensation Fund, costing approximately £30m.’
