A conglomerate of former Magic Circle partners, KCs, and academics have banded together to initiate a taskforce. This gather aims to investigate the supply of legal services to overseas oligarchs and kleptocrats by UK-based legal firms. The initiative was kickstarted by the Institute of Business Ethics, with an overarching goal to illuminate the progressively challenging ethical dilemmas proliferated by the provision of advice by UK law firms to such clients. With the expectation to provide its recommendations within the span of a year, the taskforce will communicate its findings to law firms, regulators, lawmakers, and additional relevant stakeholders. One of the members of the taskforce expressed the difficult balancing act faced by legal professionals having to ‘walk a tightrope’ amidst professional obligations and ethical considerations in representing such individuals.
For more details on this development, please find more in the original report here.