The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has issued a warning after scam emails claiming to be from Clifford Chance UK managing partner Michael Bates were sent out to members of the public.

According to a statement by the SRA, the emails asked recipients to review an attachment in relation to a client matter. The emails came from the address "[email protected]".

Both CC and Bates confirmed to the SRA that they do not have any connection with the emails referred to above and that any email showing ".onmicrosoft.com" in the email address is not from the genuine firm.

The SRA advised that anyone who receives emails claiming to be from a law firm or named lawyer should conduct their own due diligence and contact the firm in question directly.

In a statement, a Clifford Chance spokesperson said: "We are aware of recent emails impersonating the firm as part of an attempted email scam, and have both published an alert on our website and worked with the SRA to ensure the details are available for anyone to easily verify. We recommend that anyone receiving a suspicious email deletes it and does not reply or, if there is genuine ambiguity, to contact us."

Last year, Simmons & Simmons and Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) were also subject to emails having been falsely attributed to them.

For HSF, the scam emails related to a potential claim for the benefit of a "will investment" of the sender's deceased client and were falsely claimed to be sent from London public law head Andrew Lidbetter.

A similar situation occurred at Simmons with emails relating to unclaimed inheritance falsely attributed to corporate partner David Parkes.