A former partner in Clyde & Co's Guildford office has been handed a three month suspension, after being referred to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) over an alleged "improper" transfer of funds.

Charles Smith was a litigation partner with Clydes between 2013 and 2015, stepping down from the partnership to become a consultant in the Guildford office in 2015. Smith remained with the firm as a consultant until November this year.

Following his suspension, Smith will also be subject to conditions imposed by the tribunal for two years. These include not becoming a partner in a Limited Liability Partnership, not holding client money, not authorising transfers from any client account and informing any prospective employer of these conditions. Smith has also been ordered to pay the Solicitors Regulation Authority's  (SRA's) costs of over £17,000.

The SRA opened the original investigation into Smith in March 2016 after Smith was accused of instructing or permitting an improper transfer of money from Clyde's client account to its office account.

In April, Clydes was separately hit with a £50,000 fine by the SDT and three of its partners were fined £10,000 each for a breach of money laundering rules that allowed the firm's client account to be used as a banking facility.

US firm Locke Lord was recently fined a record £500,000 by the regulator after admitting that it had failed to prevent a former London partner from using a client account for "dubious" financial arrangements.

A spokesperson for Clydes said: "We are aware of the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal Judgment in relation to Charles Smith, a former junior partner and former consultant at the firm. Charles was asked to stand down from the partnership by the firm when the matter came to light in 2015. At the time we were working with the Solicitors Regulation Authority to improve our processes in relation to aged residual client balances. As a firm we hold ourselves to the highest professional and ethical standards and expect all of our people to uphold our code of conduct and client service standards."