Richard Moorhead
richardmoorhead.bsky.social
Richard Moorhead
@richardmoorhead.bsky.social

Law prof in UK, and Australia (Exeter and Monash). Empirical and conceptual work on lawyers regulation and ethics. Especially the Post Office and all who billed her. Horizon Compensation Advisory Board. Plastic Geordie. Novice cello player .. more

Richard Moorhead is a Professor of Law and Professional Ethics at the University of Exeter. He leads a team working on the British Post Office scandal and that work led to Moorhead’s appointment to the Horizon Compensation Advisory Board. He is giving the 2024 Hamlyn Lectures on "Frail Professionalism: Lawyers’ ethics after the Post Office and other cases". .. more

Law 46%
Economics 22%
Pinned
Spaundau Bolly

But less than 50% of the time
"Senior lawyers" are wrong.
The governments latest proposals have been slammed by senior lawyers, who said they would not reduce court backlogs and could “destroy justice as we know it”

www.theguardian.com/law/2025/nov...

Reposted by Richard Moorhead

"Senior lawyers" are wrong.

On the juries debate, I am not hostile to reform. There are problems with alternatives but juries are backed by overheated argument far more than evidence (same too largely for judges though). The thing worth bearing in mind is that bad as backlogs are, our problems run far deeper.

Reposted by Richard Moorhead

We are delighted to share the latest report from the #PostOffice Project 'Accessing Injustice? Representation and the Criminal Justice System During the Post Office Scandal' by Dr Karen Nokes,Dr Sally Day @richardmoorhead.bsky.social &Prof Rebecca Helm
www.ucl.ac.uk/laws/news/ac...

@laws.ucl.ac.uk
Accessing Injustice?
Experiences of representation and the criminal justice system during the Post Office Scandal – by Dr Karen Nokes and the Post Office Project.
www.ucl.ac.uk

Reposted by Richard Moorhead

This is useful recent research on how the “bot” category breaks down into people and actual bots - “inauthentic participation” is the unifier www.kcl.ac.uk/orchestrated...
Orchestrated Crowds: Rethinking Inauthentic Participation in Digital…
What is driving online communication today?
www.kcl.ac.uk
Comey: "I'm grateful the court ended the case against me, which was a prosecution based on malevolence & incompetence... I was inspired by the career people who refused to be part of this travesty. It cost some of them their jobs, but it preserved their integrity, which is beyond price"

Reposted by Richard Moorhead

💡 ‘Innocent until proven guilty’ principle has been exposed by the #PostOfficeScandal as more deeply tarnished than previously thought, according to research by UCL Laws’ Karen Nokes and @uniexeterlawschool.bsky.social's @richardmoorhead.bsky.social, Rebecca Helm and Sally Day.
Some 'defeatist’ Post Office scandal defence lawyers failed victims
Some defence lawyers acting for Post Office Horizon scandal victims during their prosecutions adopted a ‘culture of defeat’ and failed to offer adequate representation, a study co-led by UCL has…
www.ucl.ac.uk

Reposted by Richard Moorhead

The senior military lawyer for the combatant command overseeing lethal strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats near Venezuela disagreed with the Trump administration's position that the operations are lawful — and his views were sidelined, according to six sources with knowledge of the legal advice.
Top military lawyer raised legal concerns about boat strikes
The lawyer at U.S. Southern Command, which oversees the operations against alleged drug-smuggling boats near Venezuela, disagreed that the strikes are legal and was overruled, according to six sources...
www.nbcnews.com

Reposted by Richard Moorhead

Research by Karen Nokes @laws.ucl.ac.uk @richardmoorhead.bsky.social Rebecca Helm and Sally Day from @uniexeterlawschool.bsky.social shows "innocent until proven guilty" was rarely taken seriously enough when subpostmasters came into contact with the legal system

news.exeter.ac.uk/uncategorize...
Post Office cases cast doubt on the “golden thread” of British justice, study says
The “golden thread” of British justice – the principle that people are innocent until proven guilty – has been exposed by the Post Office Scandal as more deeply tarnished than previously thought, a ne...
news.exeter.ac.uk

Reposted by Richard Moorhead

@richardmoorhead.bsky.social, who leads the research, said defence lawyers sidestepped rather than addressed their clients’ assertions and focused solely on advising them to plead guilty www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/post-of...
Post Office scandal: Some defence lawyers 'defeatist'
Lawyers were outgunned, out of their depth or uninterested in what clients had to say, academic report reveals.
www.lawgazette.co.uk
The Witkoff-Dmitriev plan is even more amateurish than I imagined. It favours Russia although does contain elements that Russia will not like. Premature leaking means that it is no more than work in progress. Here is an annotated version (This is free). open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/t...?
The Witkoff-Dmitriev peace plan annotated
We now know a bit more about the process which led to the new peace plan and we now have a copy of its contents, to which I will turn soon.
open.substack.com

The thought crossed my mind too!

I suspect this will be a common (and reasonable) q, to which I have responded
A fair bit of hindsight in that report. An iconic British organisation and a globally respected tech company say they have tested the IT and it is working perfectly. Nobody else is experiencing similar problems. What do you THINK a Court is going to conclude?

Also a former DPP has reviewed cases and said the judges failed to do their jobs adequately sometimes too. So I think the hindsight argument is in reality a complacency argument.

Do it's a fair question and we deal with how difficult it was for the defence because of the PO conduct in the report. But we also know problems in the evidence were apparent on their face. That defence lawyers did not do the basics sometimes. And did worse sometimes too. All in report

From time to time I may mention I have a ticket to the first day of the Sydney test. This is one of those times.

Reposted by Richard Moorhead

A fair bit of hindsight in that report. An iconic British organisation and a globally respected tech company say they have tested the IT and it is working perfectly. Nobody else is experiencing similar problems. What do you THINK a Court is going to conclude?

Ha. According to @samfr.bsky.social dad he's known as Dim Philby

If Harvey Weinstein's lawyer drafted a peace deal
All the rape, torture, and murder will be brushed under the carpet, a great lesson for any future war criminals.

Our latest report on the PO and criminal justice system... open.substack.com/pub/richardm...
Accessing Injustice
Innocent until proven guilty is supposed to be the golden thread that runs through the criminal justice system. Does it?
open.substack.com
All the rape, torture, and murder will be brushed under the carpet, a great lesson for any future war criminals.

Reposted by Richard Moorhead

Clifford Chance cites AI as it axes 10 per cent of back-office staff on.ft.com/48qn9oK
Clifford Chance cites AI as it axes 10 per cent of back-office staff
Magic circle legal firm also shifts work to lower-cost hubs in Poland and India
on.ft.com

Your Tokyo list is amazing BTW. Thank you!

Need a functioning polity for the nostalgia

Tariffs on therapy? 😉

It's like survivor guilt but without anyone dying or, you know, guilt.
The fear of not having enough money is familiar. But there’s a quieter struggle at the top: feeling uncomfortable with having too much, says money psychotherapist Vicky Reynal ⬇️
Why my ultra-rich clients are ashamed of their wealth
www.thetimes.com
Obviously a heck of a lot to digest from the Covid inquiry but this one rings true with our experience at the time. Stronger multi disciplinary expertise might have helped show the interconnections and trade offs between health, economics, geography and societal impacts
www.bbc.com/news/article...

Reposted by Richard Moorhead

The fear of not having enough money is familiar. But there’s a quieter struggle at the top: feeling uncomfortable with having too much, says money psychotherapist Vicky Reynal ⬇️
Why my ultra-rich clients are ashamed of their wealth
www.thetimes.com