The regulator has banned a renowned solicitor advocate from exercising rights of audience on behalf of a client, among other controls imposed on his practice.
Robin Makin runs the Liverpool-based criminal defence firm Liverpool Legal, the successor to E. Rex Makin & Co., and has acted in many high-profile cases. He is best known for acting in the James Bulger murder case as the representative of the victim’s father. He also represented Moors Murderer Ian Brady, and was the last person to see the serial killer before his death.
On Monday, the Solicitors Regulation Authority published a ‘control of practice’ decision relating to the lawyer.
Makin’s practising certificate has been made subject to the conditions that he not be sole manager of any authorised body, authorised non-SRA firm or legal services body; not be a compliance officer for legal practice or compliance officer for finance and administration for any authorised body and that he not ‘exercise rights of audience on behalf of a client’.
The SRA said the basis for the control of practice was that the ‘conditions are necessary in the public interest. They are reasonable and proportionate having regard to the purposes set out in regulation 7 of the SRA Authorisation of Individuals Regulations, and the regulatory objectives and principles governing regulatory activities as contained in section 28 of the Legal Services Act 2007.’
In November last year, the Gazette revealed the Ministry of Justice had reported Makin to the SRA over his conduct in a decade-long High Court case. Makin had sued the ministry for not complying with a ‘subject access’ request and succeeded after a two-day trial in the High Court in 2014, but subsequently drew scathing criticism from judges for his conduct of costs proceedings which lasted until 2023.
The misconduct, as found by multiple judges, included shouting and swearing at a hearing; persistently accusing a costs judge of bias and egregiously overcharging for his case against - in which he was a claimant representing himself - after he tried to bill the Ministry of Justice £936,875, a sum assessed downwards to £55,000.
Separately, it was understood Makin was referred to the regulator after he was hit with over £105,000 in wasted costs for demonstrating ‘vexatiousness’ when pursuing a private prosecution. District Judge McDonagh, sitting at Willesden magistrates’ court in June last year, said Makin had continued the prosecution despite ‘critical flaws in his case’.
The SRA first confirmed it was investigating Makin in January last year and later said it was looking at ‘a range of issues’. It told the Gazette that its work on the solicitor’s case ‘continues’.
Makin has been contacted for comment.
