Read An Immoral Code for Free Online

courts, and the courts are using any device they can to get at the insurers. Our Names are the poor suckers who have underwritten those risks. They’ve already paid out a small fortune in claims, and God knows how many more demands will be made on them. Most of them hadn’t a clue what kind of risks Capstall was underwriting.’
    ‘If you’re a Lloyd’s Name, your liability is unlimited, isn’t it?’ said Camilla.
    ‘Quite. Most people didn’t appreciate the dire implications of that, even though they were told it when they became members. The fact is,’ sighed Anthony, ‘a lot of our Names were suckered into joining Lloyd’s. I feel a bit sorry for most of them. They had no business becoming Names. But they’d heard that there was nice easy money to be made, and decided they’d like some of it.’
    Camilla was thrilled to be having her most sustainedconversation with Anthony so far. She was happy just to sit and listen to him, to watch him. She found something romantic in the fact that Anthony didn’t come from the same background as the other people in chambers – people like Roderick Hayter, Cameron Renshaw, and Jeremy, who had all been to public school and Oxbridge – but had struggled to become the excellent barrister he now was, with a brilliant career ahead of him. She had heard that his mother was a primary school teacher, and that he’d only just managed to get by on scholarships and handouts when he’d first started. As Anthony swivelled around in his chair, talking about run-offs and under-reserved risks, Camilla gazed at his lean, tall figure, at his expensively cut suit and silk tie, and marvelled.
    ‘What’s the hearing on Wednesday about?’ she asked, forcing herself to concentrate on the case in hand and trying not to gaze too fixedly into Anthony’s wonderful brown eyes.
    ‘It’s a preliminary point, but pretty much a vital one. Capstall’s lawyers are saying that there’s no duty of care owed by Capstall to the Names. We say there is, and that there’s also a parallel duty in tort. We won at first instance in front of the blessed Sir Basil, but lost in the Court of Appeal.’
    ‘Do you think you’ll win in the House of Lords?’
    Anthony grimaced. ‘God, I hope so. Because if we don’t, our claim is finished before it even gets off the ground. At any rate, Godfrey Ellwood – he’s our leader in the case – seems fairly sanguine. But you can never be sure about these things.’
    ‘So what can I do?’ asked Camilla, preparing to throw herself into the task of learning everything there was to learn about reinsurance and the complexities of Lloyd’s underwriting. She wanted very much to demonstrate to Anthony how able she was.
    Anthony smiled. She really was rather sweet. ‘Well, you can start by putting all those files in date order, and then you canphotocopy these three bundles. Not very exciting I know, but very useful.’
    She nodded, gazing apprehensively at the heaps of documents which lay stacked around Anthony’s desk. Oh, well, at least she was doing it for Anthony, which made it worthwhile. And maybe he would let her come to the hearing. She could sit in the House of Lords in her wig and gown – she didn’t think the thrilling novelty of appearing robed in court was ever going to wear off.
     
    ‘How’d it go?’ asked Felicity two days later, as Camilla puffed into chambers behind Anthony, bearing bundles of documents, her cheeks red from the cold air and the excitement of having been in the House of Lords. She had sat next to Anthony, feeling pretty important, even though she’d had nothing to do except carry things in and take notes. Anthony hadn’t had much to do either, since the leader, Godfrey Ellwood QC, had done all the talking, but she could see from the way that Ellwood spoke to him, asked his advice in an undertone while the other side’s counsel was on his feet, that Ellwood respected his views and regarded Anthony as important to the case. For