Bad lawyering has come under increasing focus though NDAs, SLAPPs, the banking crisis, and latterly the UK's Post Office Scandal, an extraordinary legal scandal spanning more than 20 years that ruined thousands of lives. This book examines the commercial, cultural, legal, and psychological drivers of ethical failure weaving them together with case studies in a compelling account of what is wrong with lawyers' ethics. Rather than concentrating on a few bad apples, it shows how deep-seated traditions, psychological frailties, the complacency and aggression of well-paid lawyers, and the pragmatism, cynicism, and hubris of organisations combines to pollute decision-making and weaken the rule of law. Be it through awful orthodoxies or legality illusions, it shows how a lawyer's naturally uncomfortable relationship with truth and justice can become improper or even criminal. This title is also available as open access on Cambridge Core.

‘This is an exciting read … the problems are endemic and the writer goes to some lengths to explain them.’

Jo O’Sullivan Source: The Law Society Gazette

‘Although it provides the principal case study, this is much more than another book about the Post Office Horizon scandal. The author instead uses the history of that miscarriage of justice as a launching point to explore wider questions about legal ethics and the behaviour of lawyers and legal institutions. The book’s particular strength is in looking beneath the failures identified by it and other books, to examine why they may have arisen. It develops an intellectual framework through which professional behaviour can be understood and analysed, providing a basis for applying the lessons of the scandal more widely.’

Sean Gordon - The Law Society Gazette