Post Office Scandal Interview

A punchy and expansive conversation with Lee Castleton. OBE. and Flora Page KC at LegalTechTalk, about Accountability & Ethics and what is ahead following the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry.

What was clear as a bell from Lee and Flora is that with all the claims of 'lessons learned', 'Post Office' (or akin to it) could easily happen again. As Flora put it - the legal profession and business community have not stopped to take it in. Which is the opportunity offered.

The need for regulation of the regulators, Met prosecutions and strong enforcement against individual lawyers and firms came out loud and clear, with bullishness on this all coming to pass, and perhaps more likely with Flora serving on the Legal Services Board. Plus a very interesting angle on insurance. Little known fact that Womble Bond Dickinson helped POL craft a perfect notification to insurers - a red zone on a number of levels. For in-house counsel, notifying insurers is an important moment and operational opportunity to pause and do a governance review, not just tick a box or hone arguments.

The discussion on lawyers' relationship with tech was enlightening too, and the role this did or didn't play in the Scandal.

Lee's point that we are all regulators and have way more power than we think was a great way to end, with Flora backstage after offering a student the advice always to remember the people you love when you are faced with ethical conflict at work. Never do you have to tow any line that does not feel true.

This is a subject that will run as long as it take to correct the momentum, and with Lee's current legal action against both the Post Office and Fujitsu (a historic first in relation to Fujitsu), there is certainly more to come.