Now it's the lawyers' turn to be sucked into the phone-hacking scandal

Now it's the turn of lawyers and the legal process to be sucked into the phone-hacking vortex. The Law Society has even suggested justice itself is under threat, implying messages could have been intercepted with the intention of influencing court cases.

Several prominent solicitors fear their mobile phones have been hacked. Some have been formally informed of the risk by police after detectives discovered their numbers among a private investigator's notes.

Graham Shear, of Berwin Leighton Paisner who has represented celebrities such as Robbie Williams and Jude Law, is one of those who has lodged a claim against the News of the World for damages over breach of privacy.

"In January this year I was contacted by senior officers in Operation Weeting [the Metropolitan police inquiry into phone hacking]," Shear said. "They told me that, contrary to what had been said previously, a number of my clients were referred to in documents from [Glenn] Mulcaire's file. My name was among them."

If messages had been intercepted, he said, it would have been a breach of confidential relationship with clients.

The media lawyer Mark Stephens expressed similar anxieties. "I asked [Scotland Yard] if I'd been hacked - they came back to me in 90 minutes and said yes," he told Channel 4 News. "It confirmed my worst suspicions, that I was in Mulcaire's notebook. There is nothing I can do about it, but the important thing is to ascertain which client [was the target] so I can advise them. My concern is for them, not myself."

Mark Lewis, the solicitor who represented Gordon Taylor in the first settlement with the News of the World for phone hacking, may also have had his voicemails illegally accessed.

One barrister involved in media cases admitted he had been worried enough to check with the detectives to see if his mobile number was on the list. He had been relieved to be assured it was not.

In a statement, Des Hudson, the Law Society chief executive, said:

"Hacking into solicitors' phones would be very serious indeed, and we urge the police to carry out a full investigation. If hacking was carried out with the intention of undermining court action, it might well constitute an attempt to pervert the course of justice, which is a serious criminal offence.
"It is a shocking breach of the privacy of both solicitors and their clients. I will also be writing to Lord Justice Leveson [the judge leading the phone-hacking inquiry] asking him to investigate these allegations."

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has also launched an investigation into the role of other, unspecified lawyers "in events surrounding the News of the World phone-hacking scandal".

Antony Townsend, the authority's chief executive, said:

"The first step in this investigation is to obtain the evidence necessary to ensure a thorough investigation, using the powers we have under the Solicitors Act 1974. We will pursue our investigation vigorously and thoroughly, but emphasise that our inquiries are at an early stage, and that no conclusions have been reached about whether there may have been any impropriety by any solicitor."

The law firm Harbottle & Lewis, which reviewed emails from the accounts of Andy Coulson and others, is also expected to face questions from the culture, media and sports select committee.

The MPs have said they will be seeking an explanation for the firm's statement that it had not found "reasonable evidence" that senior editors were aware of phone hacking.

Harbottle and Lewis has, meanwhile, written to Keith Vaz, chairman of the Commons home affairs select committee, about phone hacking, saying that the firm is "free to explain the position in general terms, without commenting at all on the circumstances in question".

With such widespread suspicions, the habit of leaving messages on a mobile phone may soon become as obsolete as ink pots and quill pens.