A leading US firm with a London office has admitted failing to comply with the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s Russian sanctions regime.
The SRA said ‘multiple breaches’ committed by Steptoe International LLP were found in relation to two unnamed clients.
The firm was rebuked and ordered to pay £600 costs.
Regulators investigated following a self-report by the firm and identified areas of concern in relation to the government’s Russia Regulations, which state that people can act under the authority of a Treasury licence but only under certain conditions. Any breach of those conditions is an offence, according to the regulations.
The SRA said that appropriate licences had been obtained in respect of these two clients and that Steptoe International had policies and processes in place. But the firm failed to comply with all conditions of the relevant licences, owing to what the SRA described as ‘inadvertent human error’, largely on the part of one individual.
The firm admitted failing to comply with the Russia Regulations and in turn breaching the part of the SRA’s code of conduct which required it to keep up-to-date with and follow the law.
The SRA said that a written rebuke was enough of a penalty as there was no lasting significant harm to consumers of third parties. The breaches were an administrative error and were isolated, not causing severe or lasting damage to the purposes of the sanctions regime.
There is a low risk of repetition owing to the additional policies and procedures now in place, the SRA added.
Steptoe International describes itself as a specialist in preventative international corporate compliance and government investigations and enforcement. Headquartered in Washington DC, it has more than 500 lawyers across offices in Beijing, Brussels, Chicago, Hong Kong, Houston, London, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco.
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