Client conflicts can scupper mergers and fuel rivalry between partners. With the Tomlinson report highlighting concerns that banks wield too much power over their advisers, Alex Newman charts recent conflicts flashpoints and asks if they are a force for good or evil
Last November the somewhat unglamorous topic of law firm conflicts briefly squeezed its way into the mainstream business news agenda, following the publication of the Tomlinson report. Within that account of the Royal Bank of Scotland’s (RBS) controversial lending practices – compiled by Government ‘entrepreneur in residence’ Lawrence Tomlinson – was the allegation that the banking industry’s grip on the top-end of the UK legal services market effectively amounted to an oligopoly, whereby all the star legal talent is conflicted out of acting against powerful financial institutions.
