A Blackburn lawyer barred from practising as a solicitor more than 20 years ago has been reinstated following a tribunal.

Bushra Anwar, of Beardwood Park, was the first Asian female solicitor to run her own practice in the region.

She set up her firm on Strawberry Bank in the early nineties and her thriving practice was set to expand.

Speaking of the decision to reinstate her on the solicitors roll, Ms Anwar said she was ‘happy to have received ‘justice’ more than 20 years since she was last able to practise as a solicitor.

Ms Anwar was struck off by the Law Society in May 1999, after admitting a number of counts of serious misconduct.

These included being fined in the High Court for contempt of court, employing a struck off solicitor in her firm and making a false statement to her bank and internal accounting irregularities.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal hearing on 14 January 2021 decided to restore Ms Anwar’s name on the Roll of Solicitors without any conditions.

An official order states: “That the application of Bushra Anwar of Beardwood Park, Blackburn for restoration to the Roll of Solicitors be granted.”

Ms Anwar said: ‘I am happy that after so many years I feel I have at last received justice. Mine was an exceptional case in that there was never any allegation of dishonesty.

“The general rule is that striking off is on cases of dishonesty so there is no coming back. It was accepted that I was not a risk to the public and no conditions were to be attached to my practising certificate. This also very exceptional.

“There were no errors on any client cases and no complaints from clients. I have lived with this judgement for many years.”

Ms Anwar qualified in September 1993 and started her own firm Anwar Solicitors in February 1994 after finding few opportunities for Asian women to take on major cases in her profession. She said she started taking on more and more cases in a short period of time. By 1998 the firm employed 10 people.

Ms Anwar said: “I opened up the firm with £10,000 with a bank loan and by the end of the year I had bought the building due to the number of new cases we had taken on.

“It was very difficult for a new solicitor, especially for young Asian women in the legal profession back then.

“We were doing really well and few firms had established themselves and built up a good reputation.”

Ms Anwar said she would be conducting consultancy work, specialising in family and regulatory law and had no plans, as yet, to set up a new firm.

Ms Anwar had also had a keen interest in politics and stood as a parliamentary candidate as an independent for Blackburn in 2010.