FOUR former partners of collapsed firm Ross Harper were this week up before a Scottish Solicitors Discipline Tribunal hearing that could ultimately see them struck off the solicitors roll.

The two-day hearing, brought by the Law Society of Scotland against Alan Miller, Joseph Mullen, James Price and Paul McHolland, took place in Perth on Monday and Tuesday.

The tribunal hearing relates to the 2012 collapse of Ross Harper, at one time one of the best-known firms in Scotland which counted the likes of former First Minister Donald Dewar among its alumni.

Ross Harper ceased trading after the Law Society, which had uncovered accounting irregularities during a routine inspection of the firm, applied to the Court of Session to have a judicial factor appointed. The role of a judicial factor is to gather and distribute property – client money in the case of Ross Harper - that belongs to somebody else.

When the judicial factor was appointed in April 2012 Law Society chief executive Lorna Jack said the body will seek to appoint a judicial factor “whenever we have concerns that client money is missing or, because the accounting records are so poor, we cannot tell if client funds are missing”.

A spokesman for the Law Society this week said the misconduct hearing at the tribunal is taking place after the society “carried out investigations following the judicial factor appointment”.

The tribunal’s most severe sanction is removal from the roll but it can also censure, fine, restrict practising certificates and suspend solicitors.

All Ross Harper’s partners were suspended from practise when the judicial factor was appointed. Mr McHolland is no longer suspended.