tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5069210070737344160.post8306138041476239811..comments2024-03-28T07:28:02.402+00:00Comments on GC's Eye View: Ethics and the General CounselTom Kilroyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12341500973865955587noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5069210070737344160.post-53591695266716121102011-08-24T10:03:17.818+01:002011-08-24T10:03:17.818+01:00Really interesting piece. It must be of some conce...Really interesting piece. It must be of some concern that in a number of areas the law is developing against enabling in house counsel to take such a strong role in compliance. In particular, the Akzo case had the ECJ taking a very antagonistic line towards in-house lawyers, trashing their independence from their employers in the EU competition context and I've read a number of commentaries on the Bribery Act which suggest that it is not safe for in-house lawyers to consider their communications with internal clients on anti-bribery compliance to be privileged even under English law (I disagree but that the possibility is even seriously raised is a concern).<br /><br />Another risk for in-house lawyers in an ethics compliance context is that of becoming "too" embedded in their business. Perhaps this is weeded out at GC level, but I've known rather too many employed lawyers to "go native" and pressure on them to do so (it was one of the reasons I didn't want to stay in the Government Legal Service). We all like to think that we can retain our professional and lawyerly detachment, but ultimately everyone is fallible. While it is important to ensure that senior management buy into and live the ethics that they want their business to adopt to make sure that they send the right messages and instructions down (and react the right way to whistleblowing), in practice, most employees are far removed from the senior management - the culture also has to be built from the bottom up. Behaving ethically has to be seen to be the better and more productive way of working even for the lowliest employees - often, in my experience, this is best done by using little or no legal or compliance language and just demonstrating how the (unlabeled) ethical behaviours are better. Everyone's eyes glaze over when you trot out the wording of Art 101 TFEU - salesmen get the idea when you tell them that they should have an attitude of liking and trusting their customers far far more than their competitors.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com