Lawyer to earn £3m fee

A lawyer is set to earn the highest fee in legal history in a case against the Bank of England.

Gordon Pollock, QC, who is leading the fight to recoup £850million in damages for creditors of the bankrupt Bank of Credit and Commerce International, could pocket £5million if the case - starting tomorrow - lasts, as predicted, until mid-2005.

Even if legal arguments do not take 18 months, the barrister will still make £3 million. The fee is revealed today in The Lawyer magazine.

Mr Pollock, 60, was named as one of the country's top-earning barristers in 2001. He is head of Essex Court chambers and a bencher of Gray's Inn.

BCCI went out of business in 1991 with $12 billion debts. Liquidators claim the Bank of England did not regulate the company properly.