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Do the right thing

21 October 2016 / Dr Tony Harvey
Issue: 7719 / Categories: Features , Profession , Commercial
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Post Panama Papers & pre-Brexit: how can we encourage corporate lawyers to behave with integrity, asks Dr Tony Harvey

  • A preventative culture of ethical articulation, education and real world support, which values and rewards integrity and makes good behaviour axiomatic for legal professionalism, should be encouraged.

This year has been lived against the backdrop of seemingly never ending scandals in business and professional services. The year opened with more details emerging of FIFA officials taking kick-backs for votes and further controversy about multi-nationals avoiding taxes through clever corporate arrangements. Easter saw the raid on the offices of Mossak Fonseca following the outrage arising from the Panama Papers. Calls to “do the right thing” have never been louder. In the summer, on 8 June, the European Parliament agreed to set up a Panama Papers Inquiry Committee only to be faced, 15 days later, by the UK Brexit vote. Three days after that the UK Commissioner for Financial Stability and Financial Services, Lord Hill, resigned.

In such a squally climate what can

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

DWF—19 appointments

DWF—19 appointments

Belfast team bolstered by three senior hires and 16 further appointments

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Firm strengthens leveraged finance team with London partner hire

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Double hire marks launch of family team in Leeds

NEWS
Small law firms want to embrace technology but feel lost in a maze of jargon, costs and compliance fears, writes Aisling O’Connell of the Solicitors Regulation Authority in this week's NLJ
The Supreme Court issued a landmark judgment in July that overturned the convictions of Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo, once poster boys of the Libor and Euribor scandal. In NLJ this week, Neil Swift of Peters & Peters considers what the ruling means for financial law enforcement
Charlie Mercer and Astrid Gillam of Stewarts crunch the numbers on civil fraud claims in the English courts, in this week's NLJ. New data shows civil fraud claims rising steadily since 2014, with the King’s Bench Division overtaking the Commercial Court as the forum of choice for lower-value disputes
Bea Rossetto of the National Pro Bono Centre makes the case for ‘General Practice Pro Bono’—using core legal skills to deliver life-changing support, without the need for niche expertise—in this week's NLJ
Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve reports on Haynes v Thomson, the first judicial application of the Supreme Court’s For Women Scotland ruling in a discrimination claim, in this week's NLJ
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