Law firm Burges Salmon secures £16m Post Office contract for Horizon IT Inquiry

Bristol-headquartered law firm Burges Salmon has secured another legal services contract with the Post Office over advice for the ongoing Horizon IT Inquiry.

Following a procurement process, the law firm secured the position to provide the Post Office with legal advice. This comes after the firm swapped out long-term heavyweight legal advisers Herbert Smith Freehills last April.

On its switch last year, a spokesperson for the Post Office stated that it addressed any “risk” of HSF not being able to assist on “aspects of Phase 5 [Inquiry] relating to matters in which it has been involved in”.

The contract Burges Salmon won last year, which ran up until April, was worth £15m, while the new contract, which runs until May 2025, is worth £16m.

The Inquiry suffered from delays due to issues with disclosure. It was revealed last November that the Post Office spent nearly £24m from 1 January 2022 to 31 July 2023 on external legal advice for disclosure.

Additionally, the hearing has put a lot of the Post Office’s former legal representatives into the hot seat, as lawyers and barristers were called to give evidence.

The question of how former Post Office lawyers conducted themselves hangs over the industry as the legal regulator now has more than 20 live investigations into law firms and lawyers who were working on behalf of the Post Office.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) stated last month that lawyers will face ‘action’ if they are found to have ‘fallen short’ of the standards.

The Post Office Horizon Inquiry continues as Phases 5 and 6 are set to run until the end of July, with no date on when Phase 7 will kick off.