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23 May 2019 / John Gould
Issue: 7841 / Categories: Features , Regulatory
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Doing what’s right & legal

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Conduct unbefitting? John Gould weighs up the evidence surrounding legal but anti-social lawyering
  • One person’s moral conviction is not another’s legal obligation.
  • Lawyers must have integrity and comply with professional codes.

Law is the great ethical common denominator. We can disagree with it but we must obey it or take the consequences. It tells us, in a way which matters, what is right and what is wrong. It tells us what is permitted and what is not. It tells us that with compliance comes the freedom to speak or to do as we please.

Individually I may think that failing to stand for the national anthem should be punished by public stoning but, until my lobbying produces a referendum and legislation, you can continue to sit there gesturing disrespectfully in my general direction. A Beefeater will not appear and haul you off to the Bloody Tower.

Fortunately for lawyers, we are not experiencing a shortage of law. Law, like nature, abhors a vacuum and a vast cloud of law

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NEWS
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NLJ this week: Raising the age bar
Calls to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14 have been renewed, with the Bar Council arguing the current threshold criminalises children too early and risks pushing them towards lifelong offending
NLJ this week: Beyond AI hallucinations
The legal profession's AI challenge extends far beyond fabricated case citations, according to a warning about the next phase of technological risk
NLJ this week: AML supervision shake-up
Law firms should use the transition period before the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) assumes anti-money laundering (AML) supervision to strengthen governance and compliance, experts have warned
NLJ this week: Options for global evidence gathering
Cross-border disputes increasingly demand creative approaches to gathering evidence, with litigators needing to look beyond traditional letters of request
NLJ this week: Indefinite or forever?
A Court of Appeal ruling has clarified the distinction between contracts of 'indefinite' and 'perpetual' duration, with potentially significant implications for commercial drafting
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