Testimony from the Post Office Inquiry over the past year has generated more than a little comment on the topic of legal ethics. We shall presumably have to wait until next year for what inquiry chair Sir Wyn Williams has to say on the subject.
But, according to the witness statement from Post Office chief executive Nick Read to the inquiry this week, the organisation has already conducted something of a training blitz in this area. It began in October 2021 with the in-house legal team going through a ‘thorough refresh’, with training on Solicitors Regulation Authority standards. This was followed in March 2022 by attendance at a roundtable on ethical challenges, in-person mandatory ethics training in June that year, and further ethical training delivered by City firm Norton Rose in December. Mandatory extra training was carried out in March this year, with further ethics training sessions provided by Simmons & Simmons in July. Additional sessions are planned.
All very commendable, but after a 20-year scandal featuring hundreds of miscarriages of justice, possibly a little belated?
The inquiry continues.
