In-House Lawyers' Ethics: Institutional Logics, Legal Risk and the Tournament of Influence

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This book provides an empirically grounded, in-depth investigation of the ethical dimensions to in-house practice and how legal risk is defined and managed by in-house lawyers and others. The growing significance and status of the role of General Counsel has been accompanied by growth in legal risk as a phenomenon of importance. In-house lawyers are regularly exhorted to be more commercial, proactive and strategic, to be business leaders and not (mere) lawyers, but they are increasingly exposed for their roles in organisational scandals. This book poses the question: how far does going beyond being a lawyer conflict with or entail being more ethical It explores the role of in-housers by calling on three key pieces of empirical research: two tranches of interviews with senior in-house lawyers and senior compliance staff; and an unparalleled large survey of in-house lawyers. On the basis of this evidence, the authors explore how ideas about in-house roles shape professional logics; how far professional notions such as independence play a role in those logics; and the ways in which ethical infrastructure are managed or are absent from in-house practice. It concludes with a discussion of whether and how in-house lawyers and their regulators need to take professionalism and professional ethicality more seriously.

Reviews

Moorhead et al. have provided readers with a trove of high-quality empirical data on in-house counsel along with careful, nuanced analyses of their role conceptions, professional orientations, ethics, and role in risk management the authors are to be commended for this impressive contribution to socio-legal scholarship on the legal profession. The book is rigorous, thoughtful, and provocative. Not only have they greatly increased our understanding of in-house counsel in England and Wales, but they have also opened up promising avenues for comparative research. -- Lynn Mather * Journal of Law and Society *

Author Bio

Richard Moorhead is Professor of Law and Professional Ethics at University College London. Steven Vaughan is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Laws at University College London. Cristina Godinho is an Invited Assistant Professor in the Department of Social and Organisational Psychology at Lisbon University Institute.