Rejoice! The Court of Appeal has, in an exquisite judgment penned by Lord Justice Birss, reversed Mazur. It was after all lawful for an unauthorised person to act for and on behalf of an authorised individual so as to conduct litigation under their supervision, provided the authorised individual put in place appropriate arrangements for the supervision of and delegation to the unauthorised person. Legal executives are back where they rightfully belong. The Legal Services Act 2007 was never intended to and did not alter the time-honoured practice of unqualified staff being entitled to conduct litigation under supervision.
Nicholas Bacon KC should be in line for canonisation at the very least. He had no involvement with this matter until after the High Court judgment. CILEX, which also had no presence at that hearing, turned to Nick. Somehow he secured permission to appeal on behalf of an outsider, and well out of time too. Oh, and he did it all pro bono.
As
