[jhynesrockmtn]

I dabble in HR so not a pro, but I have a long history of working with and at times butting heads with HR folks. The "it's the law to post jobs" line is BS in a privately held company. This assumes there is no union in place. Even then it wouldn't be "law" but "contract compliance". There are laws that apply to govt. jobs that just don't apply to a privately held company. Did your HR person come from a federal, state or other govt. job?

Lot's of larger and more complex companies generally make it a policy to post positions internally to fight the appearance of favoritism when handling promotions or filling desirable roles. It sounds like your person would get the job even if it was posted given their background and training.

Is this HR person the most senior you have in the Company? How big of a business are we talking about? Are they speaking to a company policy and confusing it with "the law".