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Mr Beaumont means the decision of Divisional Court in the Leigh Day case. I don't see anything in that judgment (or Howd) which would have helped Mark Lewis: the Tribunal felt that the conduct was sufficiently serious and reprehensible to merit a prosecution and a conviction. As the SRA found in Leigh Day, you can't (or shouldn't) appeal merely because you disagree with the Tribunal's assessment.

In reality, the SRA forced the Tribunal's hand by putting the matter in front of the Tribunal in the first place. The Tribunal (which has convicted other solicitors for abusive postings in the past) probably had little choice but to treat the provocation as as matter of mitigation rather than exculpation.

The case didn't need to go before the Tribunal, but the SRA put it there. It could (and should) have dealt with it in another way.