he Post Office paid its lawyers Herbert Smith Freehills a £15m ‘transitional’ fee after removing them from compensation work, the Gazette can reveal.
An engagement letter which emerged this week shows that HSF was awarded the contract earlier this year to facilitate handover to a new provider, Pinsent Masons, to oversee the Horizon Shortfall Scheme (HSS).
HSF was criticised in Sir Wyn Williams’ report this week for the way it had handled the HSS scheme. Williams, chair of the three-year public inquiry into the Horizon IT scandal, said he was persuaded by the evidence of non-executive shareholder Lorna Gratton who had expressed the view that HSF was too ‘legalistic’ in its discussions with claimants and ‘prone to argue, unnecessarily, about comparatively small sums of money’.
Williams added: ‘In the difficult and substantial claims, on too many occasions, the Post Office and its advisors have adopted an unnecessarily adversarial attitude towards making initial offers which have had the effect of depressing the level at which settlements have been achieved.’
Williams reported that as of December 2024, HSF had been paid £67m by the Post Office for its work on HSS claims. The firm also received a further £15m for its advice on the separate Overturned Convictions Scheme.
HSF has yet to respond to requests for comment following the Williams report.
