The Single Best Lesson You Can Teach in Ethics Training: Secrets Hate Being Kept

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The Single Best Lesson You Can Teach in Ethics Training: Secrets Hate Being Kept

Mark Ohringer, Global General Counsel, Jones Lang LaSalle, USA

When you train your people on your company’s code of ethics, what is the single-most useful lesson you can impart? What is the one thing you want everybody to take away with them when they leave the room that will keep them out of trouble and will keep your company out of the newspaper? The technical definition of a facilitating payment? The meaning of quid-pro-quo sexual harassment? The nuances of the FCPA or the UK Bribery Act? None of these. The single most useful, best lesson you should make sure everyone understands, the one thing they must never forget, is that their secrets will hate being kept. Just like nature abhors a vacuum, secrets cannot stand being restricted and they will do anything possible to break free, to be heard, to see the full light of day. It is amazing how often people don’t even think about this, or ignore the absolute force of what they are up against and actually, whether arrogantly or naively or both, that they think somehow they will be the first ones in human history to overcome it. And it is the failure to learn this most basic lesson that will inevitably, someday, somehow, by hook or by crook, in ways that they could never have predicted, get them into trouble and rain embarrassment down upon all who supported them, trusted them, and relied upon them. It is therefore also the one lesson that should be the best friend of every Chief Legal Officer. It probably also applies to everything else the CLO does in connection with litigation, transactions, and the rest of it, but just to keep it simple we’ll stick to ethics for now. Corporate ethics and integrity training, like your church, temple, or mosque, often tries to appeal to the higher moral spirit: “Here’s the right thing to do.” “Virtue is its own reward.” We tell our people that we are fiduciaries for our shareholders and must guard their interests and assets just as we would our own. But let’s face it, this message likely only works on the people who weren’t going to commit mischief in the first place. It is not a message that’s going to get through to the ones you need to reach the most, namely the people who are likely to cause the trouble because they are the ones without the scruples. Or, even giving them the benefit of the doubt, they’re the ones most prone to the temptation to stray or the ones who are prone to bend to the very real pressures out there to make the numbers every quarter.

Mark J. Ohringer has been Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated since April 2003. He oversees the firm’s legal, compliance, ethics and insurance programs on a global basis. With over 80,000 employees in more than 80 countries, Jones Lang LaSalle (NYSE:JLL; www.jll.com) provides comprehensive integrated real estate and investment management expertise on a local, regional and global level to owner, occupier and investor clients. It is an industry leader in property and corporate facility management services, with a portfolio of 3 billion square feet worldwide. Its LaSalle Investment Management subsidiary is one of the world’s largest and most diversified real estate investment management firms, with over $60 billion of assets under management. From April 2002 through March 2003, Mark served as Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of Kemper Insurance Group, Inc., an insurance holding company. Prior to that, he served as General Counsel and Secretary of Heller Financial, Inc., a commercial finance company, since September 2000. He had previously served in various positions of increasing responsibility within the Heller Financial legal services function. Prior to joining Heller, Mark was a Partner at the law firm of Winston & Strawn. He has a B.A. in Economics (summa cum laude) from Yale College and a J.D. from Stanford Law School. In 2011, Mark was named by the Ethisphere Institute as one of the world’s “100 Most Influential People in Business Ethics.” In 2012, he was named by Corporate Board Member as one of America’s Top General Counsel.

Jones Lang LaSalle is a financial and professional services firm specialising in real estate services and investment management. More than 80,000 people in over 80 countries serve the local, regional and global real estate needs of those clients, growing the company in the process. In response to changing client expectations and market conditions, Jones Lang LaSalle assemble teams of experts who deliver integrated services built on market insight and foresight, sound research and relevant market knowledge.

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