Manchester City hire £10,000-an-hour Boris Johnson Partygate barrister to fight Premier League charges
Manchester City have hired the barrister who advised Boris Johnson over Partygate, Lord Pannick KC, to defend them against more than 100 charges brought by the Premier League.
Pannick is one of the country’s leading barristers and can command fees of £10,000 an hour – equivalent to City top earner Kevin de Bruyne’s £400,000 salary, according to The Lawyer.
The top silk rarely takes first instance hearings but has been instructed to do so on this occasion by City, in what is seen as a sign of how seriously the club is taking the charges.
Pannick is set to go up against his fellow barrister at Blackstone Chambers, Adam Lewis KC, at the Premier League’s independent commission. A date has not yet been published.
City were hit with the raft of charges dating back to 2009 on Monday, following a four-year investigation by the Premier League.
The current English champions are accused of submitting inaccurate financial information to the Premier League for nine seasons in a row and then failing to cooperate to with the probe for the last five campaigns.
If found guilty City face the threat of a points deduction or even expulsion from the competition.
The club said they were surprised by the charges and welcomed the referral to a three-person commissions.