Abstract
ABSTRACTThis paper draws on interviews with 57 corporate finance lawyers working from global law firms based in the City of London. Drawing on this data, we highlight common themes of taking deals at ‘face value’, being the lawyer-technician who uses the law to effect his client’s wishes, and not ‘pushing’ ethics. We suggest that there is an apathy – a lack of concern or interest – about ethics on the part of corporate lawyers. This apathy stems from various sources. It is linked to assumptions about the sorts of clients that large law firms are willing or not willing to act for, and assumptions about the ‘right sort of people’ the firm hires and retains; it is linked to strong notions of role morality; and it is founded on the classic legal ethics ‘standard conception’ principles of neutrality and non-accountability. Our data also highlights a lack of ethical infrastructures in large firms, and a lack of ethical leadership from law firm partners for the associates and trainees working for them.
Highlights
Forty years ago, the American jurist Charles Fried asked the question: ‘Can a good lawyer be a good person?’.1 The answer over those intervening five decades has been, at various times and for various people: yes; no; and maybe
This paper draws on interviews with 57 corporate finance lawyers working from global law firms based in the City of London
We suggest that there is an apathy – a lack of concern or interest – about ethics on the part of corporate lawyers
Summary
The American jurist Charles Fried asked the question: ‘Can a good lawyer be a good person?’.1 The answer over those intervening five decades has been, at various times and for various people: yes; no; and maybe. In this paper we draw on empirical data from interviews with 57 lawyers based in the City of London to suggest that the modernday corporate lawyer is ethically apathetic: neither good nor bad, but rather indifferent and unenthusiastic when it comes to the ethics of what they do and the impacts their work may have. We show how these corporate lawyers articulate their client-centred, client-first role along the classic lines of the ‘standard conception’ of legal ethics: as such, it is not for them to judge what their clients do, nor should they be held accountable for the actions of their clients. Employment Discrimination Research (Springer, 2005). 3R O’Brien, ‘Ethical Numbness: Some Glimpses of Lawyers Across Asia and the South Pacific’ (2012) 5 Journal of International
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