Professor Richard Moorhead of University College London wrote the book on ethics for in-house lawyers – literally (with co-authors Steven Vaughan and Cristina Godinho). Richards talks to Crafty Counsel’s Ben White about their key findings after surveying more than 400 in-housers on ethics, professional rules and conduct.
Is there a tension between ‘adding value’ and applying independence and professional judgement? What are the most effective ways of dealing with ethical pressures? What more can our industry bodies do to support in-housers? All this and more, in this wide-ranging interview.
“A typical comment is: ‘I haven’t thought about this since Law School… Actually, we didn’t think about it then, either.'”
“The vast majority of this is modern lawyering. The pressure to ‘be commercial’ is the same [in private practice and in-house].”
“We talk about the scandals. What we don’t see are the great saves.”