SRA succeeds in Court of Appeal hearing on illegality/public policy
Judgment was handed down by the Court of Appeal in the matter of Westlaw Services Ltd, Khan v Boddy (SRA intervening) on 30 July 2010. The case concerned whether contracts infringing SPR Rule 7 (the prohibition against fee sharing with non-solicitors) were unenforceable by the non-solicitor counterparties to those agreements even though they were not themselves regulated persons. The Court of Appeal (Etherton, Rix and Gross L.J.J) accepted the SRA’s submission that those contracts were unenforceable on the grounds of illegality and/or public policy. James McClelland appeared as sole counsel for the SRA; his opponent on the issue of illegality/public policy was Robert Englehart QC who appeared for Westlaw Services Ltd. Kevin Metzger appeared for Mr Khan and William Buck appeared for Mr Boddy.