Archive for 2016

Asking a good question

The late Nobel Laureate in physics Isidor I. Rabi once said: ”My mother made me a scientist without ever intending it. Every other Jewish mother in Brooklyn would ask her child after school: ‘So? Did you learn anything today?’ But not my mother. She always asked me a different question. […]

Domestic bribery and code of conduct waivers

It was – at least according to this Blog – the most interesting COI story of 2015 (as of February of that year): the head of the New York/New Jersey Port Authority (the PA)  – David Samson – had persuaded United Airlines to reinstate a money-losing route that was convenient […]
  • 7 years ago
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Why conflicts of interest matter – it is both the incentives and disincentives

Yesterday Paul Krugman had a great piece in the NY Times on Why Corruption Matters. With the COI Blog about to have its five-year anniversary, and with COIs in the news as never before (thanks to the President Elect), it seems worth asking the same question of conflicts of interest. […]

Trump Princelings?

The most recent post on this blog concerned the possibility of President Elect Trump putting his assets in a trust which would be managed by his children to avoid conflicts of interest that could arise from his management and ownership of such assets while in office. Since then an unrelated […]

A conflict of interest monitor for President Trump?

The past few days has seen a near avalanche of news stories on the looming conflicts of interest that will arise from Donald Trump’s being President while being the owner of a wide range of real estate and other interests. There has never been anything like it in the history […]

Conflict of interest certification best practices

As noted in an earlier post, the Ethics & Compliance Initiative has recently published a COI best practices report written by a research working group which I co-chaired (along with Mark Snyderman of Laureate Education). Here are some of the report’s findings and recommendations on the important topic of COI certifications […]

A silver anniversary for a golden rule

Last week saw the 25th anniversary of the Corporate Sentencing Guidelines – which, more than any other legal development, gave rise to the Age of Compliance. In my latest column in Compliance and Ethics Professional (page 2 of PDF) I celebrate this happy occasion.

Reverse behavioral ethics

I am a member of LinkedIn and for the past few months have periodically received a message saying: “2 people in your network are using LinkedIn Sales Navigator to be more effective.” Given that I have – as I assume is the case with many members – more than 500 […]

ECI publishes COI benchmarking report

Today the Ethics & Compliance Initiative published a benchmarking report written by a working group of 34 ECI members, which I was honored to chair with Mark Snyderman of Laureate Education.  The report is available for free download here. I hope you find it useful.

Free webcast on new conflicts of interest research

On October 19 the Ethics & Compliance Initiative will present a free web cast on research on effective conflicts of interest compliance measures. A link for registering can be found here. The research was conducted by a working group of ECI members, which Mark Snyderman of Laureate Education and I […]