Interesting piece in Corporate Counsel on the role of HP's ex-general counsel Ann Baskins in the pretexting scandal.

Baskins, as the piece points out, was in the best position to recognize the problem and do something about it. She chose not to.

And while the records show that she repeatedly raised legal questions about the tactics, she never pushed for a definitive answer about whether the methods used were, in fact, lawful. More the point, she focused on the legalities and not the ethics.

In retrospect, I suspect Baskins didn't push too hard because she was second-guessing where the company leaders were coming from. She wasn't the only one who was myopic. Which means it's not the kind of mistake that's unique to lawyers. Wilful blindness is a condition that goes to the heart of management itself.

Modern organisations can be plagued by a wilful blindness of managers who refuse to see the bleeding obvious. It's a problem I examine in my piece here:

"Companies might talk about "thinking outside the square", about people inside showing creativity and innovation so that they are not ambushed by events, but organisations are in fact vehicles of conformity. Management is about efficient repetition and protecting the status quo. These corporate habits reflect broader human traits: those who stand out in organisations or ask difficult questions about institutional practices risk being silenced, marginalised or ridiculed."