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Regulatory matters

16 March 2018 / John Gould
Issue: 7785 / Categories: Features , Regulatory
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John Gould explains why honesty & integrity are not the same

  • The relationship between two concepts: honesty and integrity.
  • Clear ethical standards are the foundation of our profession and the basis of the public trust upon which our profession depends.
  • Distinguishing between the two, integrity is the standard that matters for the regulation of our profession.

You might have thought that what it means to act honestly or with integrity wouldn’t have been in much doubt since the days when Adam came to realise that serpents weren’t to be trusted to the ends of the Garden of Eden. You would, however, be wrong. Ethical standards change according to time and place. If there had been a Viking Code of Conduct, no doubt successful murder and pillage would have been required outcomes and the particularly harsh treatment of monks an indicative behaviour.

The same, of course, is true of the standards of conduct generally. Once, a solicitor who kept clients’ money in his own bank account and acted as a banker would not have been

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Hugh James—Phil Edwards

Hugh James—Phil Edwards

Serious injury teambolstered by high-profile partner hire

Freeths—Melanie Stancliffe

Freeths—Melanie Stancliffe

Firm strengthens employment team with partner hire

DAC Beachcroft—Tim Barr

DAC Beachcroft—Tim Barr

Lawyers’ liability practice strengthened with partner appointment in London

NEWS
Tech companies will be legally required to prevent material that encourages or assists serious self-harm appearing on their platforms, under Online Safety Act 2023 regulations due to come into force in the autumn
Commercial leasehold, the defence of insanity and ‘consent’ in the criminal law are among the next tranche of projects for the Law Commission
The Bar has a culture of ‘impunity’ and ‘collusive bystanding’ in which making a complaint is deemed career-ending due to a ‘cohort of untouchables’ at the top, Baroness Harriet Harman KC has found
Lawyers have broadly welcomed plans to electronically tag up to 22,000 more offenders, scrap most prison terms below a year and make prisoners ‘earn’ early release
David Lammy, Ellie Reeves and Baroness Levitt have taken up office at the Ministry of Justice, following the cabinet reshuffle
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