The ethical dimensions of in-house practice are a significant source of academic and practical interest, as the recent investigation of GM suggests. I have the pleasure of doing two projects where I engage with in-house lawyers on ethical questions: one on the ethics of legal practice and the other on legal risk. So it was with great interest that I read Bond Dickinson report Beyond Responsibility: The emerging role of legal counsel in sustainable business.
It is a recent contribution to the idea that, ‘sustainability presents real opportunities for in-house lawyers to make a valuable commercial contribution beyond purely legal [and environmental] issues,’ says Victor Tettmar, BD’s executive partner. Based predominantly on a survey of 51 senior in-house lawyers the report states:
