It is certainly not my experience that City firms recklessly set out to ignore rules. Indeed, many firms have dedicated units whose sole purpose is to steer the firm through a path which can often be tricky, to say the least.

Every solicitors’ firm is subject to our rules of professional conduct and it is the job of the Law Society to make those rules as meaningful as they can be for all modes of practice. Chris Perrin, head of conflicts at Clifford Chance, hit the nail on the head when he commented in the article “the current rules are so unclear that most firms have taken a view that may or may not be inconsistent with them”.