Legal Ethics & Corporate Practice

Catalog description

An increasing number of Pace graduates go to work in corporate law firms and legal departments. Even those who accept jobs in smaller firms are likely to have experiences with organizational clients. Perhaps no area of professional responsibility has undergone the kind of rapid evolution that has permeated corporate practice, which has fueled increased conversations about the role of both inside and outside corporate counsel. Corporate scandals, such as Enron, and increased governmental regulation have contributed to unprecedented changes in this field. The ABA, through its Business Law Section, the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, and the Association of Corporate Counsel have devoted considerable resources to the ethical issues addressed in this course. Many law firms now employ a General Counsel to advise the firm and its lawyers regarding ethics and professional liability questions. Pace Law School requires all students to take an introductory course in Professional Responsibility. There are only a few advanced courses in this field, and Legal Ethics and Corporate Practice is one. Corporate ethics topics are not fully explored in the introductory Professional Responsibility course. For example, legislation, such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, and Internal Revenue Service Circular 230 place new demands on corporations and their counsel. Another example involves multijurisdictional practice issues, which confront every corporation that operates across state lines (virtually all corporations). Likewise, the Law School offers a number of courses related to corporations and corporate practice, which may periodically address ethics issues that arise, but ethics is certainly not the primary focus of these substantive courses. A course in Corporate Legal Ethics serves as a bridge between the professional responsibility and…