A note from our Founder, Ben
A note from our Founder, Ben
Close your eyes, and think about in-house lawyers in 2024. What do you see?
Sadly, for many of us, the mind’s eye will go to the livestream of Susan Crichton, the former General Counsel of the Post Office, giving evidence at the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry.
Or, of the evidence from her immediate successor, Chris Aujard.
Or, we may think of the BBC news video of Jane MacLeod, Aujard’s successor, being doorstepped in Australia, asked why she refused to attend the inquiry.
These images of the Post Office scandal are the crystallisation of our fears. The fear of how we might be treated as in-house lawyers. The fear of what we might do, not do, or miss, in the wrong circumstances.
For me? Actually, the image in my mind is not of a lawyer at all. Because I see Lee Castleton.
2024 has been summed up for me by standing on stage at Crafty Fest with Lee, surrounded by 700 in-house lawyers and other festival guests, while he talked us through his and his family’s traumatic 20-year battle for justice. It was a moment in which everything that we do in the legal sector, which can often feel ‘oh so abstract’, felt all too real.
The unfair contractual terms. The aggressive litigation. The obsessive focus on client interest above all other duties to court, society, or just doing the right thing. At the end of all of that: Lee, Lee, Lee.
But, as so many said on that day, it was also a moment of hope. Lee described himself as a “Post Office victim,” but everyone there knew him as a Post Office hero. And, we too can be heroes – not just for one day. We can do that by listening to Lee’s closing words. What do you want your eulogy to read? How will you be remembered?
Ben White
CEO & Founder, Crafty Counsel
