CMPH - R had a legal team join?

Hello! I just had my CMPH and I was abit shocked to see when I joined that my respondent (a large luxury retail business) had also had a Junior Council from a local London firm join the call also and represent them but the whole way through the process the business had been representing themselves and doing all the paperwork with the in-house legal team

Is this allowed? or should I really have been notified before hand?