Mark Lewis told the Leveson Inquiry into press standards that hacking the phones of celebrities and other people in the news was "too easy to do" for journalists.
He suggested that reporters, at least initially, thought of the practice as no worse than driving at 35mph in a 30mph zone.
Mr Lewis said the News Of The World (NOTW) was the paper caught out hacking phones because its private detective, Glenn Mulcaire, kept such detailed records.
He told the inquiry: "In a way, I feel sorry for the News Of The World, or certainly the News Of The World's readers.
"Because it was a much more widespread practice than just one newspaper.
"It was just simply that their inquiry agent, Glenn Mulcaire, had written things down and kept the evidence.
"The fact that evidence doesn't exist in written form doesn't mean to say that the crime didn't happen."
Mulcaire was jailed along with the News of the World's former royal editor Clive Goodman in January 2007 after they admitted intercepting voicemail messages left on phones belonging to royal aides.
Mr Lewis represents several people who had their phones hacked - including the parents of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler.
The lawyer negotiated a total of £3m from Rupert Murdoch and News International in compensation for the hacking of Milly's phone.
He also represented Gordon Taylor, boss of the Professional Footballers' Association, winning him a £425,000 settlement from News International as the first phone-hacking claimant.
Mr Lewis told the inquiry that NOTW journalists wrongly concluded Mr Taylor was having an affair after hacking his phone and misinterpreting a voicemail.
Mr Taylor had spoken at the funeral of former in-house solicitor Joanne Armstrong's father.
She left a message on the PFA chairman's phone the next day saying, "Thank you for yesterday, you were wonderful", the inquiry heard.
Mr Lewis said: "The tabloid journalist who knew of that message added two and two and made 84. They couldn't possibly conceive of any other explanation.
"If it hadn't been so sad, it would have been funny."
In recent weeks it has been revealed that Mr Lewis was followed by the NOTW and his ex-wife and daughter were put under surveillance by a private detective working for the paper.
Mr Lewis also believes his phone was hacked.
The mother and father of missing Madeleine McCann will also give evidence later when they will reveal how incessant press attention affected their family life.
Kate and Gerry McCann's testimony is certain to be among the most moving the Leveson Inquiry will hear.
The abduction of Madeleine on a family holiday in Portugal and the suspicion surrounding the couple led to a barrage of highly personal media reports.
The inquiry is also hearing from the former wife of England football star Paul Gascoigne, Sheryl.
Their troubled relationship provided the tabloid press with a gold mine of highly personal stories.
Ms Gascoigne's testimony is likely to shed even more light on the dark arts employed by the more unscrupulous extremes of the media in order to dredge up dirt on their targets.
On Tuesday, comedian Steve Coogan likened some parts of the press to the Mafia, saying the underhand methods they use were "just business".
He described how the News Of The World rang him about a story it intended to publish involving an affair he had been having, offering to leave out some of the more "lurid" and "embarrassing" details if he confirmed the story.
The Alan Partridge creator did, only to be told that the entire conversation had been recorded and all the details would be published in the paper, which they were.
As he finished his evidence, Coogan said: "There needs to be a privacy law so that genuine public interest journalism is not besmirched by this tawdry muck-raking."
The witness schedule:
:: Wednesday November 23
Gerry McCann (father of missing Madeleine), Sheryl Gascoigne (ex-wife of footballer Paul), Tom Rowland (journalist), Mark Lewis (lawyer, represents some phone-hacking victims).
:: Thursday November 24
Sienna Miller, Max Mosley, JK Rowling, Mark Thomson (lawyer), HJK (anonymous witness - had a relationship with well-known person).
:: Monday November 28
Charlotte Church, Anne Diamond, Ian Hurst (former British Army intelligence officer), Jane Winter (Northern Ireland human rights campaigner), Chris Jefferies (landlord of murdered Joanna Yeates)
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