Harbottle & Lewis took possession of hundreds of internal emails from the News of the World in 2007 after being hired by News International.
The firm indicated in a short letter to News International that the emails did not show wider evidence of criminality. This document was relied upon by the publisher during parliamentary inquiries in 2009.
The Daily Telegraph understands that the emails did show evidence of potentially criminal behaviour and have now been passed to the police.
It is unclear whether anyone at News International read the emails before they were given to the lawyers.
A former director of public prosecutions who later reviewed some of the emails is said by News Corp sources to have been extremely suprised by the conclusions of Harbottle & Lewis. Tom Watson, a senior Labour MP, has reported the firm to the Solicitors Regulation Authority, the legal watchdog, and asked them to investigate.
Lawrence Abramson, who was managing partner at the firm at the time, is to be called to give evidence to a parliamentary committee.
The disclosure is a major embarrassment for Harbottle & Lewis, which has represented senior members of the Royal family including the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York.
The Daily Telegraph understands that the scale of the scandal became clear when News International executives requested the return of the cache of emails from Harbottle & Lewis earlier this year. They had been given to the lawyers in 2007 after a News of the World reporter and a private detective were jailed. At the time, News International said that phone hacking was restricted to a single rogue reporter, although this defence has since been abandoned. The emails were requested to be returned by William Lewis, who had recently been appointed as News International’s general manager. Mr Lewis is said to have been surprised by the contents of the legal file and passed it to another firm, Hickman and Rose Solicitors, for advice.
Hickman Rose hired Lord Macdonald of River Glaven, the former head of the Crown Prosecution Service, to provide a report for the News Corp board.
Last night, Lord Macdonald declined to comment on whether he had described the file as a “major scandal”. But he confirmed he found evidence in it of “indirect hacking”, breaches of national security and evidence of serious crime. He said: “The advice by Harbottle & Lewis was incomprehensible.”
Lord Macdonald presented his findings to the board of News Corp last month. He said: “My advice was to go to the police and they did.”
Mr Abramson declined to comment yesterday but said his departure from Harbottle & Lewis last year to another firm was unconnected to his work for News International. Yesterday, Harbottle & Lewis declined to comment.
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