expertise
Integrity
Ethics & compliance
Compliance & Ethics is a driver of trust, reputation, human-centricity and healthy growth. It aims at clarifying what are good behaviours (safety, (cyber-)security, privacy, diversity & inclusion) and preventing the bad and the ugly in any organisation: white-collar crimes, revenue loss and bad press (e.g. corruption, fraud, discrimination, harassment, unfair competition). It also fosters the good for the better: to create value with values, to ensure meaningful strategy, investment and stakeholder impact.
The GOVERN&LAW Team is globally recognised for its modern Compliance & Ethics practice. We have been Compliance & Ethics Officers with international companies and public authorities. We know how to get the multifocal job done and what lies ahead.
Clients call on us to help them navigate the Compliance & Ethics revolution: new societal expectations, new laws and enforcers, new preventive interventions, new holistic approaches to risks and value creation. Our cross-disciplinary and cross-jurisdictional Team offers synergy, consistency and effectiveness in addressing clients’ ethical challenges and opportunities.
Our services
1. Designing actionable compliance & ethics programs, charters and policies
– Holistic: 360° approach to Compliance & Ethics: Smart Compliance Pilot
– By specialty: anti-corruption, antitrust, data protection, human rights
2. Training, coaching and communication at all levels
3. Scoping compliance organisation, priorities and responsibilities
4. Risk mapping and mitigation: tailored and dynamic
5. Internal and external compliance audit and monitoring
6. A Compliance Toolbox for prevention, detection and remediation
7. Sharing best practices across sectors, countries and enforcement fields
8. Handling whistleblowing, investigations and inspections
9. Advising clients facing breaches, allegations or dilemmas
10. Compliance & Ethics Officer as a Service
Recent matters
Integrity by design
GOVERN&LAW is a pioneer thinker and practitioner of Ethics or Compliance by Design (CBD).
To be qualified as responsible and trustworthy, innovation and technological development depend foremost on their ethical and lawful nature. Tech compliance with fundamental norms and ethics entail a powerful competitive advantage: it is human-centric by design.
Companies, labs, public institutions, academia call on the GOVERN&LAW Team for the most pressing skills in the digital economy, next to user-experience: ethical and compliance acumen.
We get involved early on to secure first time right development as well as throughout project and product life cycles, to support better-informed strategic decisions and tech designs (even where they involve deep learning and black boxes).
Our CBD approach aim to raise integrity, humanity and explainability. A project that can claim being compliant by design has a strong competitive advantage: it is profitably human.
Our services
2. Advising on risks, accountability, liability, transparency and explainability
3. Designing and supporting responsible innovation and A.I. programs
4. Breaking silos to match ethical & technical requirements
5. Partnering with innovation and project teams to integrate compliance, ethics & human-centricity
6. Developing CBD roadmaps and objectives suited to the technology
7. Translating CBD requirements in intelligible and attractive language for non-experts (legal design)
8. Educating and empowering to adopt healthy CBD checks
9. Law is Code: helping code compliance & ethics into algorithms
10. Reforming law and enforcement for more effective CBD
Recent matters
whistleblowing
& internal investigations
GOVERN&LAW is unique in the whistle-blowing field: members of our team have also been compliance officers in charge of whistleblowing at large companies, responsible for thousands of employees, hundreds of alerts and internal investigations.
Organisations of 50+ people will need to have a whistleblowing channel and effectively protect whistle-blowers. This legal obligation as from 2021 and 2023 for smaller companies promotes a culture of integrity in the public and private sectors.
Companies and public authorities increasingly set up a whistleblowing mechanism for its many benefits: to live up to their purpose and values, to self-detect and remedy breaches early on; to make employees feel respected and engaged; to protect their reputation; to improve processes and results; to protect and recover assets.
We offer the secure whistleblowing center, strong experience and expertise, legal privilege and secrecy, independence and objectiveness, and the right guidance to corporations, public authorities, and whistle-blowers.
Our services
2. Designing suited reporting lines, procedures and practices.
3. Receiving and handling alerts (confidentiality and anonymity).
4. Satisfying whistleblowing protection requirements.
5. Leading or supporting investigations into allegations.
6. Advising on the practical and legal implications of investigations.
7. Helping organisations develop a positive speak-up culture.
8. Training executives and employees on the why, what and how.
9. Advising on appropriate responses, sanctions and solutions.
10. Hub and dispatch of alerts to the best experts on the claim (bribery, cartel, misuse of assets, harassment, fraud, abuse of powers, false accounts, discrimination, …).
Recent matters
Integrity culture
Integrity is not a department. It is a mindset, a behaviour and culture.
Authorities and stakeholders expect integrity efforts to be effective. Effectiveness means actual conduct and culture in line with ethics and laws.
What is the point indeed of investing in compliance and ethics programs if they do not empower people and the organisation to strive in the right direction?
Effectiveness is not easy – it supposes to address a mix of rules and complex factors: context, incentives, objectives, psychology, habits, geography, politics, peer behaviour,…
The GOVERN&LAW Team is multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural from its inception, precisely to support clients with fostering the right culture and behaviour across sectors and countries.
We take pride in creating value for clients, by successfully supporting their integrity culture and behaviour, hence their mission and organisation.
Our services
2. Zero measurement and metrics to incentivise (un)ethical behaviours and cultures
3. Drawing compliance governance, powers and responsibilities
4. Developing decision trees to enable people and foster accountability
5. Training on ethical dilemmas, psychological and behavioural reflexes
6. Building and communicating on breach scenarios
7. Assessing & coaching tone and behaviour at the top (executives, board, management)
8. Detecting inconsistencies, carrots and sticks
9. Real-life testing of habits, communication, strategies and behaviours
10. Accompanying business changes affecting behaviours and cultures (e.g. M&A)
Recent matters
Metrics & incentives
Integrity is like a company: it should be subject to evaluation… and valuation. Both face the same challenge: what values and metrics are worth it? How does it impact the company and society, shareholders and stakeholders, short term and long term?
Factoring integrity as a cost is obsolete: integrity is an investment and an asset.
The GOVERN&LAW Integrity Team uniquely cares about incentives and metrics intelligence. It drives performance, transparency and accountability.
We help clients develop and use relevant benchmarks for each dimension of integrity programs: governance, communication, training, risk mapping, investigation, management,…
We collaborate to maximise the benefit of integrity through KPIs, compensation, asset recovery, performance reviews, engagement and trust assessments. The common goal is clear: continuous improvement and meaningful work.
Our services
2. Assessing and improving evaluation criteria for integrity
3. Identifying the types of improvements and results linked to compliance & ethics program
4. Supporting the selection of relevant financial and non-financial criteria
5. Measuring the cost-benefit of each program dimension (e.g. investigation cost 40k and recovered 200k assets)
6. Factoring integrity in incentives, KPI, promotion, evaluation and compensation factors
7. Advising on proportionate disciplinary sanctions and penalties for wrongdoings
8. Reporting and statistics to the Board, ExCom, Compliance & Audit Teams
9. Drawing integrity checklists for clients to monitor, value and invest in what matters
10. Aligning integrity criteria with risk, finance, procurement, M&A, audit or strategy teams