The Post Office Scandal: in-house lawyer regulation and practice in the spotlight
The backstory
The Post Office Horizon Scandal puts in-house lawyer regulation and practice firmly in the spotlight. This is the subject of a paper I share here, with the goal of kickstarting collective review and accountability for the environment in which scandals such as these occur, and the steps and standards needed to prevent them.
The genesis of this paper is a workshop arranged by Paul Gilbert to provide input for Prof Richard Moorhead’s forensic submission to the Williams Inquiry. The workshop was attended by lawyers and others with an interest in the legal profession, and provided both in-depth insight into the Post Office Scandal, and an opportunity to reflect on the context in which lawyers - particularly in-house lawyers - operate, including the critical importance of the legal principle of independence in the practice of law.
Those who attended the workshop submitted a document in support of Prof Moorhead’s submission and felt something further was needed to spark debate while the Inquiry was underway. That something turned into this paper, the drafting of which I chaired. Those happy to be publicly associated with it are listed on the LinkedIn post.
The group covered a lot of ground, with a range of views and extensive experience, and without consensus on all points. The opportunity I saw was to facilitate and capture what was at the heart of these discussions and offer a way forward - one that goes beyond the present scandal, to the patterns behind.
Corporate and institutional illegality and misconduct and their real world consequences are far from uncommon. There are many stories that do not make it into the press. Lawyers, and in particular in-house lawyers, play a key role preventing and handling such activity, with duties owed not only to their client, but to society at large. The environment in which they operate and the standards to which they are held are of much greater significance than the current regulatory and societal focus attests.
It is this on which we can now engage - ahead of the national and even global attention that will increasingly be paid, and the questions that will be asked of the legal profession as the Inquiry unfolds.
These are questions we can ask and discuss now.
There are practical steps every board and in-house team can take today.
And there are definitive moves regulators and professional bodies can make, without delay.
Do let us know what you feel about these issues via the post on LinkedIn or the contact form on this website.
20 mins reading time.
NOTE: Paper updated 1 June 2022 - LinkedIn post here