LAWFUEL – The Legal Newswire – A UK Judge, Mr Justice Peter Smith, and law firm Addleshaw Goddard were in negotiations that would have seen the judge join the firm in a £750,000-a-year package for him and a court assistant, which would have equated to the top of the Addleshaws’ equity, The Lawyer reports from London.
However, five months of talks broke down at the end of May after the judge pushed for a decision from the firm.
The negotiations were disclosed in a Court of Appeal recusal hearing last week (4 July), but not the potential package.
In the case of Howell v Lees-Millais, Addleshaws, whose private client head Paul Howell was one of the parties in the case, was looking for the judge to stand down.
The Court of Appeal divulged that an email to Peter Smith J from Addleshaws’ head of the contentious group Simon Twigden stated that the firm could not offer the judge a position. Twigden cited “financial reasons” as an explanation for why the firm would not be “taking matters any further”.
The initial point of contact in the discussions is understood to have been senior partner Paul Lee, whom Peter Smith J knows from Manchester legal circles.
