In-house profession is expanding, Law Society report confirms Consulting firm AxilPartners interviewed corporate counsel and compliance experts from companies spread across 20 different industries and found that the vast majority remain skeptical of anticorruption laws in historically dubious markets, including Russia, Mexico and parts of Africa. Moreover, perceived corruption risk appears to be growing, with the number of in-house counsel and compliance leaders reporting exposure to corruption risk growing from 85 per cent last year to 90 per cent in this year’s survey. Around 36 per cent of respondents said they had pulled out of or delayed an acquisition because of corruption concerns, up 10 per cent from last year’s survey.

Regional concerns

An overwhelming 62 per cent of respondents said that there are some jurisdictions in which it is virtually impossible to avoid corrupt practices, with faith in anti-corruption laws considerably disparate across different regions. While fewer than 20 per cent of respondents said that they believed anti-corruption laws in Africa, the Middle East, Mexico and Russia to be effective in preventing misconduct, anti-corruption laws in Japan and Canada were classed as effective by as many as 90 and 92 per cent of respondents respectively. Of all regions, Africa appears to have the poorest reputation for corruption-related risk among legal and compliance experts. The number of survey respondents who rated corruption risk levels as ‘significant’ in the African region jumped sharply from 59 per cent in 2014 to 78 per cent in 2015, with one in three respondents reporting that their company has avoided doing business in Africa due to corruption concerns.

Source: Inside Counsel; AxilPartners