Is there still a place for a moral compass in the business of law?

Admitting to being a banker these days is likely to generate a number of reactions – and none of them positive! Whether fairly or not, bankers have been vilified for their involvement in the global financial crisis and for their focus on taking risks and making money.

Many bankers are of course genuinely decent professionals who played no part in the crisis and have as much reason to be resentful of its consequences as others, with large numbers being laid off over the past few years.  

But where do lawyers stand in all of this? It used to be the case that lawyers set themselves apart from bankers, seeing themselves as the guardians of integrity and risk management and being more than happy to give clients advice they didn’t want to hear.

Large numbers of graduates came into the law as a profession because they felt it gave them a standing in society and a respected professional career founded on intelligent challenge and an independent viewpoint.

Is this still the case? Or have lawyers in big city firms become the slaves of bankers over recent years, colluding in the crisis by creating complex legal products and structures, and chasing profits rather than standing up for principles of fairness, transparency and integrity?

I like to think that lawyers still do have a strong moral compass guiding their advice to clients. That the training they receive gives them the ability to challenge something they don’t believe is right. And that they don’t aspire to be as rich and cavalier as the bankers they work so closely with.

But when was the last time a lawyer walked away from a deal? Can you think of an occasion when a firm decided not to take on a client or a matter because it did not fit with the firm’s values?

With the increasing public scrutiny on corporate responsibility, there is an ideal opportunity for lawyers – and the firms they work for – to stand up for their principles and to ensure that the legal profession remains just that: a profession with the highest standards and commercial scruples.

As graduates now shy away from the financial sector – or find far fewer opportunities there than in the past – it will serve law firms well to test the real motivation of the new generation coming into the legal profession.

To join the profession for anything other than wanting to uphold the rule of law in a commercial environment, and to help companies and banks structure their businesses with good governance, could lead to lawyers facing the same reactions as bankers in years to come.