TWO senior lawyers at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, the City law firm, will face a public disciplinary hearing over a potential conflict of interest when they acted for Philip Green in his failed bid for Marks & Spencer.

The Law Society’s Regulation Board yesterday recommended that Tim Jones, 54, the head of Freshfields’ corporate department, and Barry O’Brien, a senior corporate lawyer, go before the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.

The move comes after an investigation that lasted two and a half years.

The investigation centred on Freshfields’ decision to advise Mr Green on his bid for the leading UK retailer even though it had previously acted for Marks & Spencer.

The Law Society had focused on whether Freshfields, one of the UK’s leading law firms, had failed in its duty to check if it had conflicts of interest barring it from involvement in the bid. Before the bid, it had advised Marks & Spencer on retainer.

The row led to an embarrassing High Court injunction which ordered Freshfields’ ejection from the deal.

The incident prompted the Law Society to tighten up its rules governing conflicts of interest this April. It imposed a rule requiring lawyers to obtain consent from both parties if it represented two or more clients in similar matters.

Both lawyers can be struck off the register, suspended, reprimanded or fined £5,000.

The firm has not acted for either Mr Green or Marks & Spencer since the incident.

Freshfields said that it regretted the decision by the Law Society. It added: “Freshfields continues to believe that a bona fide decision of this kind should not form the basis of disciplinary proceedings.”

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