Post by Sean Wilken KC / Redsky

Did he offer you a brief in HK, you say “I don’t want to go unless they offer £1m” for them to go “ok”…..?

aug 26, 2025, 8:39 am • 2 0 • view

Wasn’t that the situation with the David Goldberg million pound brief from A&O for an Opinion to be produced overnight?

aug 26, 2025, 5:58 pm • 2 0 • view

aug 26, 2025, 7:17 pm • 0 0 • view

These sorts of things are all fun and games until you end up on the wrong end of a SFO prosecution with your chief clerk called to give evidence against you... [The charges were dismissed against SDQC & the other defendants.]

nable moneys to be released from that provision for e›ective distribution. 23 In April 2010, Mr Evans approached Stephen Davies QC for an advice; but, following a conference, in a written opinion dated 24 June 2010, Mr Davies too concluded (at para 40 of the opinion): ÔÔWhilst the freehold titles in the sites could be transferred pursuant to the proposal, Celtic would remain liable under the leases to fulÞl all of its covenants, quite apart from the remediation requirements under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 . . .ÕÕ

In other words, even if the freeholds were transferred to Oak, Celtic would remain liable for all the restoration obligations. Mr Davies consequently concluded that the proposal was not viable: para 41. 24 However, later and after an up-front fee of £250,000 had been agreed with Mr Davies and indeed paid to him at the end of June, he produced a second advice. On its face, that opinion was written on the basis that the transfer to Oak was an armÕs length transaction (see para 40), the opinion indicating that Mr DaviesÕs instructions were that Oak intended to pursue the undoubtedly high-risk but genuinely commercial strategy of seeking alternative uses for the sites, including wind farms and further coal mining activities: paras 3—4. I should emphasise that Mr Davies denies knowing that the transactions were not at armÕs length, and says he was surprised when, after the event, he found out that they were not. In any event, his second advice, provided on 31 August 2010 and making no reference to the Þrst opinion, concluded that, following the transfer of the freeholds to Oak, Celtic would be left with no restoration obligations at all. The Crown say (i) that there is evidence on which a jury could conclude that Mr Davies too knew that the transactions were neither at armÕs length nor for value, and that they were designed solely to enable Celtic to avoid its restoration obligations; and (ii) that this opinion was wrong as a matter of law, and obviously so; indeed, it was bogus, in the sense that Mr Davies well knew it was legally wrong, providing it simply because he was paid a very substantial fee to do so. The Crown relies on a statement from Mr DaviesÕs clerk who, on being told of the size of the fee for the second opinion negotiated by Mr Davies personally, said: ÔÔFuck me, thatÕs a serious amount of money.ÕÕ That, it is said, is the clearest evidence that the fee was much more than anything that could be described as commercial.

aug 26, 2025, 6:11 pm • 8 0 • view

Ah, the 'fuck me that's a big fee' case

aug 26, 2025, 6:51 pm • 1 0 • view

Many mad things about that one. Including Hickinbottom J sitting in the Crown Court and being invited to but, sadly, declining to rule on the question of whether you have a freehold estate in the air...

aug 26, 2025, 6:56 pm • 3 1 • view

That was my submission if I recall: it was the ‘sinking freehold’. I wouldn’t have dared make it in the Chancery Division.

aug 26, 2025, 7:32 pm • 5 0 • view

Does this mean the issue remains unresolved? 🤔

aug 26, 2025, 7:41 pm • 2 0 • view

Amazing stuff. One of the very few things that could have improved the law of Real Property would have been conflict between the civil and criminal courts about this issue!

aug 26, 2025, 7:48 pm • 3 0 • view

It allegedly happened to Derry Irvine, but I don’t think his involved an overnight opinion!

aug 26, 2025, 6:05 pm • 3 0 • view

Jonathan Sumption got £1m as a brief fee for a case in Australia (he delayed his elevation to the bench for it) and then huge refreshers for the 10 week trial......

aug 26, 2025, 7:00 pm • 0 0 • view

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