A leading law firm whose partners include Miriam González, the wife of Nick Clegg, has been accused of exploiting personal messages stolen from a hacked computer and posted on pirate websites.
The accusation against Dechert emerged in a multimillion-dollar battle between the investment authority of the tiny Gulf emirate of Ras al-Khaimah, which the law firm is representing, and Farhad Azima, a businessman who was used as a middleman on deals.
Dechert is relying on the emails in a suit filed at the High Court. The firm has admitted that the documents were obtained from websites that may be infected with viruses and should be accessed only with professional help.
The Times has found that accounts used to publish the data online were created at