Legal and regulatory information

Who we are

Kort is the trading name used by Kort Law Firm LTD and by the Beirut practice of Hassan Khalil.

Kort Law Firm LTD is a private limited company registered in England and Wales under company number 17371018. Its registered office is at Berkeley Square House, Berkeley Square, London W1J 6BD.

Our Beirut office is at 140 Building, 3rd Floor, Foch Street, Downtown, Beirut, Lebanon.

You can contact us at info@kortfirm.com.

Regulatory status in England and Wales

Hassan Khalil is a lawyer qualified in Lebanon and a member of the Beirut Bar Association. He is registered with the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) as a Registered Foreign Lawyer, under SRA number 7813775. You can check his details on the Solicitors Register.

A Registered Foreign Lawyer is a lawyer qualified outside England and Wales who is registered with, and regulated by, the SRA.

Kort Law Firm LTD is not authorised or regulated by the SRA. Hassan Khalil provides legal services on behalf of Kort Law Firm LTD, and remains personally bound by the SRA Standards and Regulations, including the SRA Code of Conduct for Solicitors, RELs, RFLs and RSLs.

Kort Law Firm LTD does not carry out reserved legal activities in England and Wales. These include the conduct of litigation and rights of audience in the courts of England and Wales, reserved instrument activities, probate activities, notarial activities, and the administration of oaths. If your matter requires a reserved legal activity, we will tell you, and we can refer you to an SRA-authorised firm.

What this means for you

Because Kort Law Firm LTD is not authorised by the SRA, some of the protections that apply to clients of SRA-authorised firms are not available to you:

• SRA Compensation Fund. You will not be able to make a claim on the SRA Compensation Fund. The Fund can make payments to eligible clients of SRA-regulated firms, for example where money has been taken dishonestly or a firm has failed to hold required insurance. Many businesses, including those with an annual turnover of £2 million or more, are not eligible for the Fund in any event.
• Professional indemnity insurance. Kort Law Firm LTD is not required to hold professional indemnity insurance on the SRA's minimum terms and conditions. Details of the insurance we hold are available on request.
• Client money. Kort Law Firm LTD does not hold client money. Fees paid to us are payments for our services.

Where our services are provided to you as a member of the public, you may be able to complain to the Legal Ombudsman about the service you received from Hassan Khalil, depending on the nature of the service and your eligibility. See the complaints section below.

Legal services in Lebanon

Legal services in Lebanon are provided by Hassan Khalil as a lawyer registered with the Beirut Bar Association, and are subject to the laws of Lebanon and the rules and regulations of the Beirut Bar Association. These services are not regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

Legal services from other jurisdictions

Where a matter involves the law of a jurisdiction in which we are not qualified, we will tell you, and we may work with, or refer you to, lawyers qualified in that jurisdiction.

Complaints

We want to hear from you if you are unhappy with any aspect of our service.

How to complain

Please write to Hassan Khalil at hassan@kortfirm.com or to our London or Beirut office address. Tell us what went wrong and how you would like us to put it right.

We will acknowledge your complaint within 5 working days and send you a full written response within 8 weeks of receiving it. If we need more time, we will tell you why and when you can expect our response.

The Legal Ombudsman

If you are not satisfied with our final response, or we have not resolved your complaint within 8 weeks, you may be able to refer your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman, depending on the nature of the service and your eligibility. The Legal Ombudsman usually requires complaints to be referred within 6 months of our final response, and no more than 1 year after the problem occurred or you became aware of it.

The Legal Ombudsman can be contacted at PO Box 6167, Slough SL1 0EH, by telephone on 0300 555 0333, or through www.legalombudsman.org.uk.

Reporting concerns to the SRA

If you are concerned about the professional conduct of Hassan Khalil, for example regarding dishonesty or a failure to protect your money or confidential information, you can report this to the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

Complaints about legal services in Lebanon

Complaints about legal services provided in Lebanon can also be raised with the Beirut Bar Association.

No legal advice

The content of this website is for general information only. It is not legal advice and should not be relied on as such. You should obtain advice on your specific circumstances before taking, or not taking, any action.

Contacting us through this website, by email, or by telephone does not create a lawyer–client relationship. A lawyer–client relationship begins only when we have confirmed in writing that we will act for you and set out the terms of our engagement.

Please do not send us confidential or time-sensitive information until we have confirmed that we can act for you, including that we have no conflict of interest.

Professional rules

Hassan Khalil is subject to the SRA Standards and Regulations, which can be viewed at www.sra.org.uk, and to the rules of the Beirut Bar Association.