The Solicitors Regulation Authority today closed down the practice of Preston, Lancashire, firm Gowlings Solicitors Limited citing the need to protect the interests of clients. Gowlings had 13 areas of practice including residential conveyancing, commercial property and family and personal injury.
A notice on the firm's website from intervention agent Lester Aldridge states that files held at the Gowlings office have been removed and are held by the SRA. Bank accounts of Gowlings Solicitors Limited have been frozen and all monies in those accounts are being held on behalf of clients by the SRA.
An SRA decision notice stated today: 'It is necessary to intervene to protect the interests of clients or former clients, the interests of beneficiaries of any trust of which Gowlings Solicitors Limited is or was a trustee, or the interests of the beneficiaries of any trust of which a person who is or was a manager or employee of Gowlings Solicitors Limited is or was a trustee in that person's capacity as a manager or employee (paragraph 32(1)(e) of Schedule 2 to the Administration of Justice Act 1985).'
In July this year the SRA issued the firm with a rebuke for its failure to comply with an undertaking within the agreed timescale while acting for a seller in a conveyancing transaction. The firm was 'found to be reckless' in agreeing to the undertaking without checking a mortgate redemption figure. It was issued with a written rebuke and ordered to pay costs of £600.
The last published accounts of Gowling Solicitors Limited, dated 31 March 2025, show net assets of £163,700. An average of 21 people were employed in the year. Richard Andrew Seddon is listed as the sole person with significant control.
In an outcome agreed with the SRA in 2021, Seddon, admitted in 1992, and Gowlings were jointly fined £12,000 after failing to complete undertakings to another firm on a refinance transaction.
Gowlings Solicitors has no connection with international firm Gowling WLG.
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