Consequential Responsibility for Client Wrongs

Lehman Brothers and the Regulation of the Legal Profession

Dados Bibliográficos

ID9196299
AutoresDavid Kershaw (0000-0002-6691-4687, London School of Economics and Political Science), Richard Moorhead (Centre for Ethics and Law University College London)
Ano2013
Volume76
Fascículo1
Páginas26-61
Data de publicação2013-01-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoModern Law Review (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0026-7961 • E-ISSN: 1468-2230
EditoraWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/1468-2230.12001
OpenAlexW1960767183
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas5
Referências citadas21

Should transactional lawyers bear responsibility when their competent actions facilitate unlawful activity by their client? Or is a lawyer's only concern to act in the client's interest by providing her with the advice and support she seeks? The high profile failure of Lehman Brothers provides a unique opportunity to explore these questions in the context of the provision of a legal opinion by a magic circle law firm. A legal opinion which, although as a matter of law was accurate, was a necessary precursor to an accounting treatment by Lehman Brothers which was described by the Lehman's Bankruptcy Examiner as ‘balance sheet manipulation’. The article argues that the law's existing understanding of when consequential responsibility should be imposed on those who assist another's wrongdoing provides a theory and a tool‐kit whose application can be justifiably extended to the professional regulation of transactional lawyers

Bankruptcy · Business · Context (archaeology) · Legal profession · Political science · Professional Conduct · Professional responsibility · Public relations · Sociology · Transactional leadership · Wrongdoing · History · Law · Law, Economics, and Judicial Systems · Legal Education and Practice Innovations · Legal principles and applications