Major companies prefer to use their own conflict guidelines to those of the Law Society, setting out stricter rules to govern relationships with their advisers.

The findings come in a snapshot poll taken by Legal Director this week, following the Law Society’s ‘fast track’ approval of new conflict guidelines in the wake of the controversy over Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer being barred from acting for Philip Green on his putative Marks & Spencer (M&S) bid.