Networked Law Firms Warned About Overlooking Conflict Checks

19th June 2008

 Law firms attending the Network of Leading Law Firms (NLLF) 13th Annual Conference in London on 19 and 20 June 2008 will be warned about the ease of overlooking conflict checks on cross-border transactions when instructing colleague, or agent, law firms in other countries.

 Paul Clements, a partner with UK solicitors, Rooks Rider, and Vice Chairman of the NLLF Advisory Committee, says: “In a shrinking commercial world lawyers working on cross-border transactions need to be aware that the professional rules on conducting conflict checks may differ greatly from one country’s jurisdiction to another. 

 “Although an instructing law firm in England may have rigorously followed procedures, the agent firm may wrongly assume that a conflict check has already been conducted in the new jurisdiction, may not need to conduct a check, or may fail to conduct a check in its haste to get the next job done quickly.  Not only are law firms that don’t address this increasingly common issue riding for a disciplinary fall, but they risk seriously inconveniencing and most probably losing clients as a result.

Clements’ presentation on 20 June (day two of the conference) will show how the English, American, German and Italian jurisdictions approach conflict checks in a different way.