Without a code of conduct in its legal department, a company is like a rudderless ship.
The rudder, a relatively small device on a ship, dictates its direction. In a storm, a rudderless ship will flounder and likely capsize.
Likewise, a company will fail without a corporate legal department guided by a code of conduct. It gives lawyers direction and a moral compass in troubled times.
Decision-Making
According to studies, 73 percent of workers in an organization with a written code of conduct believe it helps them do their jobs. It gives them direction about decisions before they have to make them.
Of course, it starts at the top of the organization. If the leader doesn’t have an ethical compass, the entire organization suffers.
For legal departments, it’s critical when it comes to compliance. Outside and inside counsel should be ready to give clients ethical and legal direction – especially when a company starts to veer.
Accountability
Uber learned this lesson the hard way.
Founder Travis Kalanick was forced to resign after the company’s corporate culture became toxic. According to reports, “rampant sexism” and “organizational chaos” brought the ship down.
Covington & Burling, a law firm hired to investigate the problem, reported that Uber had a “frequently chaotic and hostile work environment without adequate systems in place to ensure that violations such as sexual harassment and retaliatory behavior were dealt with professionally.”
The lawyers did their job, applying ethical and legal standards to get the company back on course and the founder out, of course.
- Does Company Culture Matter? Ask Uber (FindLaw’s In House)
- Theranos Is Finally Shutting Down (FindLaw’s In House)
- JPMorgan Settles Advisers’ Race Discrimination Case for $24M (FindLaw’s In House)
You Don’t Have To Solve This on Your Own – Get a Lawyer’s Help
Civil Rights
Block on Trump’s Asylum Ban Upheld by Supreme Court
Criminal
Judges Can Release Secret Grand Jury Records
Politicians Can’t Block Voters on Facebook, Court Rules
