Hidden skeletons - Farrer & Co
Hidden skeletons - Farrer & Co
Hidden skeletons - Farrer & Co
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While in large part your fellow<br />
partners will be individuals<br />
of integrity, every managing<br />
partner knows that, from time to time, you<br />
are likely to come across an allegation of<br />
professional misconduct (or worse) against<br />
a partner or employee.<br />
It’s usually better to find out the facts<br />
sooner rather than later so that you can<br />
take early action and ideally nip the issue<br />
in the bud before it escalates into a more<br />
serious regulatory breach.<br />
Law firms are places where,<br />
surprisingly, there is not much<br />
discussion about whistleblowing. Indeed,<br />
whistleblowing policies are not necessarily<br />
standard in the same way as employee<br />
grievance procedures or disciplinary rules.<br />
“There has been<br />
a tendency for bad<br />
news to be buried<br />
in law firms”<br />
Defining whistleblowing<br />
Whistleblowing is the term used to<br />
describe a situation where an employee or<br />
other worker raises a concern about illegal<br />
practices or other wrongdoing. Depending<br />
on the jurisdiction in which you operate, it<br />
is likely to have a specific legal definition.<br />
In the UK, the Public Interest Disclosure<br />
Act 1998 provides a framework for the<br />
protection of the whistleblower who<br />
makes a “qualifying disclosure”, conveying<br />
information which, in the reasonable belief of<br />
the worker, tends to show that a specified<br />
type of malpractice has taken place, is<br />
taking place or is likely to take place. These<br />
include criminal offences, breach of any<br />
legal obligation, miscarriages of justice,<br />
danger to health and safety, damage to the<br />
environment and the deliberate concealing<br />
of information about any of these matters.<br />
In the context of a law firm, you are<br />
likely to be dealing with the alleged<br />
commission of a criminal offence (most<br />
obviously fraud) or breach of a legal<br />
obligation. The latter category is very wide,<br />
and will cover, for example, breach of<br />
any contractual obligations owed by your<br />
firm to its clients, or even a breach of an<br />
employee’s own contract of employment.<br />
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