Post Panama Papers & pre-Brexit: how can we encourage corporate lawyers to behave with integrity, asks Dr Tony Harvey
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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 we, in the UK, do to encourage our corporate lawyers
