ICAEW v Coke-Wallis

The judgment of the Supreme Court was published on 19 January 2011, and can be downloaded here. The appeal was unamimously decided in favour of Coke-Wallis, albeit that Collins LJ  displayed as little enthusiasm for so doing as is humanly possible.

To the writer, some of whose clients were caused to suffer considerable expense and inconvenience by the actions of the ICAEW and JFSC in 2002, the case has been of personal interest. An earlier item summarising the background can be found here. 

To professionals of all stripes and, just as much if not more so, their clients, the case is of wider interest when it comes to the effective self-regulation of the professions. With ABSs now on the horizon and, with them, the inevitable jockeying for influence by the legal and accountancy regulatory bodies, one has to wonder whether the ICAEW has shot itself in both feet with this prolonged and undignified action, the tab for which will now have to be picked up by its rank and file membership. 

The judgment is hard work; a more manageable summary might be that the highest court in the land has held that the ICAEW is run by window-lickers who cannot adminster their very own disciplinary code.