Lawyer who played key role in Brexit case set for disciplinary tribunal over dishonesty claims
The vice-president of the Law Society is set to face a disciplinary tribunal later this month over claims of dishonesty.
David Greene, who acted for a claimant on the Article 50 litigation in 2016, is set to appear before the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) on 13 August.
The claim centres around £7,000 in unpaid fees his firm Edwin Coe says it is owed by a former client, David Davies.
Davies argues that his former company Eco Power instructed Edwin Coe and that he was never personally a client of the firm.
Read more: Everything you’ve ever wanted to know about the Article 50 case
Davies alleges that Greene was dishonest in previous hearings on the matter, misleading the court in his evidence to claim Davies was personally a client of the firm.
Edwin Coe has a charging order over Davies’ house and is seeking £7,000 plus legal costs and interest which takes the claim to in excess of £15,000.
Greene said: “This complaint has no substance as the courts and the SRA have concluded on several occasions. We are applying to strike it out as an abuse because the tribunal did not have in front of it the court finding against the complainant on exactly the same point.”
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), which normally investigates claims of wrongdoing by solicitors, declined to investigate the case, saying it had looked at the issue previously and found there was no misconduct.
A spokesperson for the SRA said: “We have already looked at the matter and decided there was no issue of misconduct.”
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The case is being brought as a private prosecution before the SDT which has the power to fine solicitors and ban them from practising in the most serious cases.
Under the Law Society’s rules, Greene is set to become president next year, having been elected as deputy vice-president in 2018.
Greene played a key role in the 2016 Article 50 litigation, acting for Brazilian hairdresser Deir Dos Santos, who – alongside Gina Miller – successfully challenged the government’s power to trigger Article 50 without parliamentary approval.
More recently Greene has targeted major banks, including HSBC, Santander and Barclays, in group action litigation over their involvement in film financing vehicles that the tax authorities later decided were tax avoidance schemes.
A spokesperson for the Law Society said: “It is a matter for the SDT and it would be inappropriate for us to comment.”