How In-House Lawyers Can Get it Wrong: Professional Conduct and the NightJack Case
Breakfast Presentation
The HKCCA’s Executive Committee invites you to the following presentation, hosted by Slaughter and May.
This seminar is accredited by the Law Society of Hong Kong for 1.5 CPD points. Breakfast will be provided.
Many in-house lawyers would assume that there is a relatively low risk of their day jobs landing them before the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, and then the High Court of England and Wales. However, in a recent case involving a journalist at The Times and the NightJack blogger, this risk became a reality for the in-house lawyer at The Times. This Breakfast Presentation looks at professional conduct issues and takes this case as its starting point. It focuses on the key decision-making points of the case followed by an examination of what alternative paths could have been taken when issues surrounding "who is my client?", duties owed to third parties, integrity, confidentiality and privilege arose. Whilst the training will focus on this case relating specifically to law and professional conduct in England and Wales, the speakers will seek throughout to highlight its relevance to in-house lawyers practising in Hong Kong. They will do this, in particular, by addressing each relevant SRA rule or principle in the context of its Hong Kong equivalent in the Legal Practitioners Ordinance (Cap. 159) and sub-legislation, and The Hong Kong Solicitor’s Guide to Professional Conduct. They will also reference the SRA Overseas Rules 2013, which govern (to a less prescriptive extent than the main SRA Principles) the professional behaviour of England and Wales solicitors who are practising in Hong Kong.
Using examples from the case, interspersed with views from our panel as well as some insightful contributions from our attendees, we will develop some sensible principles which in-house lawyers can live by when faced with tricky professional conduct situations.
SPEAKERS
Sarah de Gay, Head General Counsel and Head of Compliance based in Slaughter and May’s London office
Sarah established the Compliance Department at Slaughter and May after many years as a Corporate/M&A lawyer. She is also the firm’s Compliance Officer for Legal Practice and a member of its Risk Committee. As such, she has particular responsibility for the full breadth of regulatory issues which affect the firm and plays a key role in risk management more generally. Sarah has had a significant influence on the modernisation of the regulation of the solicitors’ profession. She is regarded by her peers and within the regulator as one of the leading practitioners in compliance. She is a founding and active member of the City of London Law Society’s Professional Rules and Regulation Committee (which she now chairs). She was a member of the SRA’s Standards Committee from its formation until 2012, during which time the SRA wrote its first Handbook and introduced outcomes-focused regulation. Sarah is the co-author of the In-house Lawyer Guide, a practical guide to the SRA Handbook, which has been recommended by the GC100 and referred to by some of its members as their 'bible' .
Peter Brien, Asia Senior Partner in Slaughter and May’s Hong Kong office
Peter is the senior partner in our Hong Kong office and has worked in our London and Hong Kong offices for a number of years. He acts for corporate clients, private equity houses and investment banks in relation to equity and debt capital markets, mergers and acquisitions (both public and private), and structured finance, as well as advising a range of clients on general corporate matters (including joint ventures) and on large outsourcing arrangements. He is listed in the elite 'Leading Lawyers' section of the Legal 500 Asia Pacific 2016's Guide Outstanding Lawyers in the Asia Pacific for Corporate (including M&A) and is recommended in the Legal 500 Asia Pacific 2016’s editorial for Corporate (including M&A) and Real Estate in Hong Kong. He is a member of the Listing Committee of the Main Board and Growth Enterprise Market of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited. He is also a member of the Sponsor Due Diligence Standards Initiative Group of Law Firms drafting the guidelines for the industry on the Regulatory Regime for Sponsors.
Mark Hughes, Partner in Slaughter and May’s Hong Kong office
Mark has an Asia-wide Dispute Resolution practice which includes High Court litigation, international arbitration, proceedings before specialist tribunals, regulatory investigations and inquiries and the management of foreign disputes. He has advised clients in relation to investigations and inquiries in Hong Kong by the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), the Broadcasting Authority, and the Privacy Commissioner and the Joint Financial Intelligence Unit. Mark is recommended in The Legal 500 Asia Pacific 2015 for Dispute Resolution.
VENUE: The Victoria Suite, The Hong Kong Club, 1 Jackson Road, Central
DATE: 18 November 2015
TIME: 8:00 for breakfast, 8:30 – 10:00 for the presentation
RSVP: Please register your attendance online no later than Friday 13th November, 2015. If you register but are then unable to attend, please email events@hkcca.net so that other members on any waitlist may attend. If you have any suggestions for topics or speakers for future HKCCA events, please let us know at events@hkcca.net.
Please note this event is exclusively for HKCCA members. If you are not an HKCCA member but you wish to attend this presentation, you need to successfully apply for membership at www.hkcca.net and pay the membership fee before registering for the event. If you have any membership queries, please contact HKCCA Secretariat on events@hkcca.net or (852) 2516 7007.
Register Now.
Best regards,
HKCCA
