Sir Brian Leveson has issued a response to the revelation in the press at the weekend that two of the leading lawyers on opposing sides of the fence at the Leveson Inquiry are apparently in a relationship.
David Sherborne represented the ‘victims' of the media in the Leveson Inquiry and Patry Hoskins was counsel to the inquiry itself.
The Daily Mail said in a comment piece today:
"Mrs Patry Hoskins had access to confidential information supplied under compulsion by media organisations, cross-examined several of Mr Sherborne’s clients, and helped formulate some of the thinking behind the Leveson report.
"Her dealings with Mr Sherborne should have been strictly at arm’s length. Indeed, under Bar Council rules, both lawyers should have informed Leveson of their relationship – which neither did – and at least one should have withdrawn.
"Frankly, this affair shows how incestuous, self-righteous and hypocritical the legal profession can be. Along with doctors, they are one of Britain’s last great unreformed institutions – self-policing and impervious to external criticism.
"They are supposed to defend liberty, yet have been in the vanguard of the current assault on press."
The pair say their affair did not begin until after the Leveson report was published in November’
Leveson said today: “There was simply no room for ‘breach of confidence or other conspiracy\ as a result of personal relationshion between her and Mr Sherborne."
His letter can be read in full here.
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