The in-house lawyers at General Motors Co. are slowly being pulled into the public questions over its ignition switch recall—what did they know about the fatal defect, when did they know it, who did they tell, and how are they going to handle the whole mess now?

House and Senate hearings revealed that GM’s legal department apparently played a role in delaying the recall. It seems the lawyers have been quietly settling lawsuits over crashes related to the faulty switch for years.