The Post Office Scandal & Lawyers: An Extraordinary Orthodoxy

Strathclyde Public Lecture May 2024

On Wednesday I gave a public lecture at the University of Strathclyde. It introduced the theme of an "extraordinary orthodoxy" where legal zeal and secrecy serve the interests of clients at the expense of justice and draws on Sir Brian Langstaff’s definition of a cover-up in the Infected Blood Scandal to pose the question, is professional orthodoxy part of the cover-up problem? Is the lawyer’s orthodox approach to uncertainty and ‘problems’ one of dissembling, denial, and concealment?

It suggests the Post Office scandal may be symptomatic of a broader issue within the legal profession where adversarial partisanship often trumps justice.

The legal profession’s obligations to uphold honesty, independence, and integrity appear too routinely overcome; client interests overshadow ethical considerations. This is so whether or not one sees some of the problems as giving rise to criminal behaviour or more serious professional misconduct, as the Inquiry, regulators, and prosecutors might.

The lecture concludes with reflections on culture drawing on the marketing of legal services, where aggressive, tactical lawyers may be prized, further entrenching the problematic culture.

The call to action is for regulators, educators, the courts and legislators to address this "extraordinary orthodoxy" to inhibit future injustices. This requires a re-evaluation of legal education, professional regulation, and court approaches to disputes, as well as the law on corporate governance.

You can read the text of the lecture here.