A number of Fountain Court members have appeared before a 7 member panel of the Supreme Court in the high profile case of Prudential v Special Commissioner of Income Tax, one of The Lawyer’s Top 20 cases of 2012.
The case is concerned with the issue of whether, at common law, legal advice privilege applies to communications between a client and an accountant seeking and giving legal advice on tax law. The importance of the issue led to the grant of permission to intervene in the appeal to the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (the ICAEW), the Bar Council, the Law Society, the Legal Services Board and the Association Internationale pour la Protection de la Propriete Intellectuelle UK Group (AIPPI).
Patrick Goodall (led by James Eadie QC of Blackstone Chambers, instructed by HMRC) appeared for the Respondent, Patricia Robertson QC (instructed by Colin Passmore of Simmons & Simmons) appeared for the ICAEW, and Bankim Thanki QC, Ben Valentin (of South Square), Henry King and Rebecca Loveridge (instructed by Hartley Foster of Field Fisher Waterhouse) appeared for the Bar Council.
