Two lawyers working for Rupert Murdoch's media giant News International face disciplinary proceedings over allegations they covered up the scale of the phone hacking going on at the now-defunct News of the World newspaper.

Lawrence Abramson, a former partner at London firm Harbottle & Lewis, which was hired by NI, and former NI in-house lawyer Jon Chapman will appear before the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal on 8 October.

The hearing is listed for three days. They are accused of having seen emails that showed the widespread nature of phone hacking being carried out by NotW journalists, but failing to disclose the information to the company's board.

The Guardian reported that Abramson will say in his defence that he did receive the emails, but they were given an erroneous subject heading by a temporary secretary, so he deleted them without reading them.

He will also say that Chapman could not have read the emails because he did not pass them on to him.

Corker Binning and Matthew Ryder QC from Matrix represent Abramson, while Saunders Law and Joel Bennathan QC of Doughty Street act for Chapman.

An SRA spokesman said: 'A case brought by the SRA against Lawrence Abramson and Jonathan Chapman was listed before the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal last week but was adjourned. It will be heard again in October.

??'In view of other proceedings the SRA has not yet published the nature of the allegations which Mr Abramson and Mr Chapman face.'

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