As in-house counsel are often the ones starting an internal investigation, they need to be mindful of the same issues that appear when outside counsel are conducting an internal investigation. I wrote about the referral for discipline in the Ruehle case and the malpractice claim in Pendergast-Holt investigation in Attorney-Client Privilege and Internal Investigations. It … Read more »
Dishonest Deed, Clear Conscience
In the world of compliance, you may sometimes wonder if that code of ethics really works. Lisa L. Shu, Francesca Gino, and Max H. Bazerman presented their research that a code of ethics really can reduce bad behavior: Dishonest Deed, Clear Conscience: Self-Preservation through Moral Disengagement and Motivated Forgetting. Their studies provided evidence that morality … Read more »
It’s Tax Day – Are You Tempted to Cheat on Your Taxes?
The American tax system is a good test case for cheating. We know it’s good to pay taxes because the government does lots of good things for us. At the same time, we have a selfish desire to pay as little in taxes as possible. Our tax returns are self-reporting for our income and characterization … Read more »
The Impersonator – How Attorney Marc Dreier Bilked Investors Out of Millions
We live in an age of white-collar villains. But of all the financial bad guys out there, Marc Dreier is arguably the single greatest character of them all. Bernie Madoff may have stolen more money. Dick Fuld may have caused more systemic damage. But it’s Dreier alone whose story reads like the stuff of Hollywood. … Read more »
Money Laundering with a Washing Machine
What better way to launder money than with an actual washing machine? Law enforcement in Dover, England broke up an international money laundering racket. They found £600,000 stuffed inside a washing machine that had come from the Port of Dover. Money Laundering by Simon Hughes in The Sun Read more »
Red Book 2.0 Released by OCEG with the GRC Capability Model
The Open Compliance and Ethics Group has released the second version of its Red Book about compliance models. OCEG’s Red Book 2.0 provides a guide for implementing and managing a GRC system or aspect of that system. That means Governance, Risk, and Compliance. Red Book 1, which came out in 2005, focused on “getting the … Read more »
Attorney-Client Privilege and Internal Investigations
Two cases illustrate some of the problems with the use of outside counsel for internal investigations. The possibility that a conflict of interest could arise when an attorney or law firm simultaneously represents an organization and one or more of its officers or directors is a recurring issue. A ruling earlier this month by U.S. District … Read more »
2009 World’s Most Ethical Companies
Ethisphere has published its collection of 2009 World’s Most Ethical Companies. Twenty companies dropped off the 2008 list and 25 new ones were added, leaving a list of 99 companies. Who caught my eye was Jones Lang LaSalle, a real estate company (one of my company’s business relationships) who was back on the list again. … Read more »
What Can We Learn About Compliance Programs From a Robot
We all need some help if we want to get to our destination. I was struck by Kacie Kinzer’s experiment using this “tweenbot” in New York City. “Tweenbots are human-dependent robots that navigate the city with the help of pedestrians they encounter. Rolling at a constant speed, in a straight line, Tweenbots have a destination … Read more »
The 4 Ps of the Internet: Personal, Private, Professional, and Public
I often hear the challenge of using the social internet as struggling with the balance of social (or personal) information and professional information. This never seemed to frame the issues correctly for me. Was it really one or the other? So I started thinking about the 4 Ps: Personal, Private, Professional, and Public. These seemed … Read more »