LEGAL AND REGULATORY NOTICES

“Joseph Hage Aaronson” is a network of legal practices consisting of Joseph Hage Aaronson LLP (England & Wales) and Joseph Hage Aaronson LLC (United States).

Joseph Hage Aaronson LLP (“JHA LLP”) is a limited liability partnership registered in England & Wales with registered number OC382231. The LLP is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. A list of LLP members is available for inspection at the LLP’s registered address: 280 High Holborn, London, WC1V 7EE, United Kingdom.

Joseph Hage Aaronson LLC (“JHA LLC”) is registered at 485 Lexington Avenue, 30th Floor, New York, United States.

Joseph Hage Aaronson does not provide legal services and all legal services are provided by JHA LLP and/or JHA LLC, each of which is a separate and distinct legal entity. For the avoidance of doubt, Joseph Hage Aaronson Limited (a private limited company registered in Jersey with registration number 113955) also does not provide any legal services and your contractual retainer or engagement will be with JHA LLP and/or JHA LLC if the terms of the engagement expressly so specify.

The use of word “partner” in connection with the Joseph Hage Aaronson trading name denotes a member of JHA LLP (or any of its associated entities) or JHA LLC, or a consultant or employee with equivalent standing and qualifications. The use of the term “partner” should not be construed as meaning that any form of partnership exists between the two separate entities or between the different principles of the two entities.

REGULATORY INFORMATION

Advice is given and services are supplied by JHA LLP (“we”, “us”, “our”) on the basis of our Terms of Business. All clients of JHA LLP agree to these terms and conditions, subject to any amendments which we have expressly agreed. No liability is accepted, or responsibility assumed for advice given on services supplied to persons who are not expressly clients of JHA LLP.

We have set out below some additional information which we are obliged to provide to clients (as provided for in our standard Terms of Business at clause 18). If you are a client and would like to receive the current Terms of Business and/or any other information in hard copy, please contact your Client Relationship Partner.

JHA LLP is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (“SRA”). The SRA Standards & Regulations sets out our professional and ethical rules and obligations (including the SRA Codes of Conduct and SRA Accounts Rules), and can be viewed at www.sra.org.uk. A number of our partners and staff are barristers, who have been called to the Bar of England & Wales and are also regulated by the Bar Standards Board (“BSB”). The BSB Handbook 2014 (including the BSB Code of Conduct) sets out further relevant professional and ethical rules and obligations in relation to these individuals, which can be viewed at www.barstandardsboard.org.uk.

We maintain professional indemnity insurance as required by the SRA Indemnity Insurance Rules and will name our qualifying layer underwriter upon request. Our insurance covers the professional services provided by JHA LLP worldwide.

If you wish to make a complaint concerning JHA LLP then in the first instance please contact the person with whom you are working or corresponding to set out your concerns. We will do our best to resolve any issues at this stage and will confirm our detailed complaints handling procedure in writing (which is available to clients at any time on request). If for any reason you are not satisfied with our attempt to handle and resolve your issue through our procedure, you can ask the Legal Ombudsmen to consider the matter further (you can contact the Ombudsmen by writing to them at PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ, or by an email to enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk, or by telephone 0300 555 0333).

If you wish to refer a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman, it should be done within six months of our final response to your complaint and within one year of the act or omission that caused the complaint or, if outside this period, within one year of when you should reasonably have known about the act or omission. The ombudsman may refer your complaint to the SRA if they are not the correct body to consider the matter, as the Ombudsman’s services are only available for certain types of complaints and complainants. For full details, please visit: https://www.legalombudsman.org.uk/helping-the-public/make-a-complaint/ and https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor.page. Note also that if you are a client and have a complaint in relation to our invoices, you may also be entitled to apply to the court for an assessment of our invoices under Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974.

JHA LLP is not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”) to provide financial services. Therefore, we may refer you to someone who is authorised to provide necessary advice. However, we can provide certain limited services in relation to investments, provided they are closely linked with the legal services we are providing to our clients, as we are members of the Law Society of England and Wales, which is designated professional body for the purposes of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. We are included on the Exempt Professional Firms registered maintained by the FCA so that we can carry on insurance distribution activities, which are broadly advising on, selling and the administration of insurance contracts. The register can be accessed via the FCA website.