DLA Piper client Andy Coulson is facing jail time after being found guilty of conspiring to hack phones when he was editor of the News of the World, while his predecessor of the job, Rebekah Brooks, walked free on Tuesday. Mr Coulson and Ms Brooks were among seven defendants at trial, and Brooks was cleared of five charges against her, including plotting to hack phones, conspiring to pervert the course of justice and two counts of conspiring to commit misconduct in public office between 2000 and 2006. Mr Coulson went to trial last year pleading not guilty to committing a crime by conspiring to hack phones and continually denied he knew the practice was spreading in the newsroom before he resigned from News of the World in 2007. Ms Brooks was represented by Angus McBride of Kingsley Napley. The case is reckoned to have cost around £100 million and is one of the most expensive prosecutions ever to have taken place in Britain.