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Lawyer in Ghaffur's Met battle is fighting his own £10m race case
Amar Singh, Evening Standard18.07.08
The lawyer hired by Tarique Ghaffur in his legal showdown with the Metropolitan Police, is himself fighting his own £10million discrimination claim against the Solicitors Regulation Authority, the Evening Standard can reveal.
Shahrokh Mireskandari, an Iranianborn solicitor at the firm Dean & Dean, says the SRA - which investigates misconduct complaints against solicitors - has hounded him and his firm for years.
In his 70-page claim, which is due to be heard in an employment tribunal, he accuses individuals of racially harassing him and is suing the SRA's chief executive Antony Townsend for defamation.
He told the Standard today: "I believe [the SRA] are racists. They lie, they are dishonest and I have had to spend over a million pounds fighting them.
"Only now - with the tribunal coming up - have they begun to inspect the big 'magic circle' firms but they disproportionately investigate ethnic firms. They have no ethnic minority adjudicators or solicitors - it is a racist body."
Assistant Commissioner Ghaffur - the Met's most senior Asian officer - has employed Mr Mireskandari, whose previous clients include the Hinduja Brothers, the Saudi royal family and the King of Morocco, for what is expected to be one of the most acrimonious and damaging tribunals ever faced by the Met.
Yesterday, the Standard revealed that mediation attempts between the Met's lawyers and Mr Mireskandari broke down after the Met rejected MrMireskandari's request that the former lord chancellor, Lord Falconer, or Cherie Blair chair negotiations and today he said Mr Ghaffur's tribunal would begin "very soon". "The police act like they are interested in mediation. They were not interested," he said.
"We are ready and have appointed two of the best barristers in the country, Robin Allen QC and Lord Brennan QC. This case goes right to the top of the Met and will open the door for hundreds of other ethnic minority officers.
"But the case against the SRA could overtake Tarique Ghaffur's. Without a doubt, this is about challenging the same racist establishment.
"The SRA discriminate against the lawyers who go to court and fight against discrimination - particularly when it is against the police.
"The Metropolitan Police's Director of Legal Services, Edward Solomons, is also on the SRA's board. That's a serious conflict of interest."
In 2005 Dean & Dean made an official complaint over the lack of police action when crimes are reported by Muslims and a legal source said: "When I heard that Ghaffur had appointed Mireskandari my jaw dropped. It was a clear indication that he means business. There is no love lost between the force and Mireskandari who has openly called the Met police racist."
After being lobbied by several groups and MP Keith Vaz, the SRA appointed a working group chaired by Lord Ouseley to probe race discrimination claims. Herman Ouseley's interim report has been completed but is not yet available to the public.
Daniel Brennan QC, a member of Cherie Blair's Matrix chambers, has worked on a series of high-profile cases.
Robin Allen QC is an experienced barrister who specialises in discrimination cases.
He scored a notable tribunal victory in the case of Louise Barton v Investec. It was ruled that "no tribunal should be seen to condone a City bonus culture involving secrecy and/or a lack of transparency", changing the way institutions reward employees.
