Archive for 2017

Comey, Mueller and conflicts of interest: a thought experiment

According to an article published yesterday in Newsweek: “A majority of American voters believe that Russia investigation special counsel Robert Mueller and former FBI Director James Comey are friends, despite the fact the two men have never visited each other’s homes or spent much time together outside of work.” As […]

Compliance & ethics officers in the realm of bias

Bias and conflicts of interest are, of course, related to each other;  but they also differ, in that the former can be based purely on thoughts (or feelings or beliefs) whereas the latter generally requires something truly tangible, such as an economic or familial relationship. Prior postings on bias – […]

Discipline for C&E violations: four components of program efficacy

For all sorts of reasons, maintaining an effective system of discipline can be  among the most challenging aspects of C&E work. In my latest  column in Compliance & Ethics Professional  (page 2 of attached PDF) I examine the four essential components of such a system. I hope you find it useful.  

A free web cast on compliance and ethics program assessments

On December 6 at 2:oo p.m. Sponsored by Syntrio. More information can be found here. I hope to see you there.

Should we have double ethical standards?

Of course, almost no one would answer Yes to the question put as bluntly as this. But – by word or deed (or, more often, lack of word or deed) – that is where things frequently end up. It is a seemingly timeless issue. Most recently, it has been part of the […]

A conflict of interest on the grandest of scales

Drought, floods, air pollution and political unrest. That is just part of the climate change nightmare we are leaving to future generations, as described in an important report issued late last week by the US government. Most of the conflicts of interest discussed in this blog over the past six […]

Was the Grand Inquisitor right (about compliance)?

In Dostoevsky’s short story The Grand Inquisitor,  Jesus Christ returns to earth in Spain at the time of the Inquisition, only to be arrested by Church leaders. As explained by the Grand Inquisitor (courtesy of Wikipedia), “Jesus rejected [the Devil’s] three temptations in favor of freedom, but the Inquisitor thinks that Jesus […]

As if you didn’t already have enough to worry about

My latest column in Compliance & Ethics Professional  – available on page 2 of this PDF – examines the underappreciated risks of being sued for defamation arising from doing compliance work. I hope you find it interesting.

Free web cast on behavioral ethics

On Wednesday September 27 at noon Eastern Azish Filabi of Ethical Systems and I will be speaking on a behavioral ethics web cast presented by the Ethics & Compliance Initiative. More information about the webcast can be found here. Azish and I hope you can join us.

Come to the Advanced Compliance & Ethics Workshop

Its that time of year – time for the Practising Law Institute’s Advanced Compliance & Ethics Workshop, which Rebecca Walker and I are co-chairing. You can attend on October 30-31 in NYC or on the web or on November 6-7 in San Francisco. The agenda and list of our all-star faculty […]