It has been over ten years since the IBA last embarked on a data gathering exercise regarding the existence and effectiveness of anti-corruption and money laundering legislation on a global scale.  In the meantime, discourse surrounding the role of lawyers as potential enablers of illicit financial flows, as well as their client’s ‘lawful but awful’ behaviour, has only intensified. 

The time has now come to embark on a connected series of projects: one designed to examine the evolution of lawyers’ perspectives on those regimes designed to combat the transfer of illegal assets, and the other questioning the existential issue of the ethical role of lawyers in society. This session will involve a discussion of the IBA Legal Policy and Research Unit’s plans to revive the IBA’s historic anti-corruption and money laundering surveys, as well as efforts to facilitate a new discussion concerning the role of lawyers as ethical gatekeepers in the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the ongoing climate crisis.