Italian Lawyer Fined £50k For Omissions In English Bar Application
Gabriele Giambrone, a prominent Italian lawyer and global managing partner of Giambrone & Partners, has been fined £50,000 by a Bar disciplinary tribunal for failing to disclose adverse findings against him when applying to join the English Bar. The fine is among the highest ever imposed by such a tribunal.
Mr. Giambrone, who was called to the Bar in 2021, admitted five of six charges related to making a false call declaration. He failed to disclose a six-month suspension imposed by the Bar Association of Palermo in 2016 and his removal from the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s register of European lawyers in 2013 due to accounting irregularities at his firm, Giambrone Law.
The tribunal also found that Mr. Giambrone omitted other significant details, including a 2015 High Court costs order he breached and a freezing injunction against his personal assets in Northern Ireland in 2013. The injunction was linked to a claim against him, during which he made a Facebook post that the court interpreted as a threat to dissipate assets, stating: “They thought they knocked me down, now they will see the full scale of my reaction. F*** them, just f*** them. They will be left with nothing.”
Additionally, the tribunal noted that Mr. Justice Foskett had made adverse comments about Mr. Giambrone’s credibility as a witness in litigation related to failed overseas property investments. These cases, dating back to 2015, involved claims that Mr. Giambrone and his firm failed to warn investors about the risks of projects in areas linked to organized crime.
The Bar Standards Board (BSB) confirmed that Mr. Giambrone had not declared these matters but did not explain why some omissions were excluded from the charges.
In addition to the fine, Mr. Giambrone was ordered to pay costs of £2,244. The full reasoning behind the tribunal’s decision is yet to be published.
