Shortly after Enron and other similar financial scandals, the American Bar Association (ABA) convened a Task Force of Corporate Responsibility. The task force issued a final report in April of this year setting out three key proposals.
The first two proposals were to amend, respectively, Model Rule of Professional Conduct 1.6 (the confidentiality rule) and 1.13 (the organisation as client rule, otherwise known as the reporting ‘up-the-ladder’ rule). The third proposal, which received little attention due to the controversy raging over the first two, recommends corporate governance best practices for corporate lawyers. After significant and heated debate, all three proposals were passed by the ABA House of Delegates and have now become the official guidance of the American Bar to the states and others wishing to review American lawyers’ professional conduct standards post-Enron.
