Fladgate LLP v Harrison [2012] EWHC 67 (QB), [2012] All ER (D) 45 (Feb)
The giving of instructions by a client to a solicitor constituted the solicitor’s retainer by that client. It was not essential that the retainer was in writing. It might be oral. It might be implied by the conduct of the parties in the particular case. The giving of that retainer was equivalent to the making of a contract for the solicitor’s employment, and created the solicitor’s right to be paid. In determining whether or not a retainer had come into existence, the general principles of contract law applied.
On the basis of established authority, whether there was a binding contract between the parties, and if so on what terms, depended upon what they had agreed. It depended not on their subjective state of mind, but upon a consideration of what was communicated between them by words or conduct, and whether that led objectively to a conclusion that they intended to create legal relations and had agreed upon all the terms which they regarded or the law required as essential for the formation of legally
