Corporate legal departments have played an increased role in ensuring their clients not only comply with the law but make ethical business decisions. For an in-house attorney that may mean telling the client not only if they can take a certain action, but also questioning if they should take a certain action.

Erica Salmon Byrne, executive vice president of data and services at Ethisphere Institute, a company that defines and measures corporate ethical standards, based in Denver, said legal departments are now looking into ethical behavior of their third-party vendors and asking environmental, social and governance, or ESG, questions during the due diligence process for a merger or acquisition.