In a white paper issued last year amid a tsunami of corporate scandal, the Association of Corporate Counsel made a strong case for the general counsel as a linchpin of positive corporate culture.
The authors, Veta T. Richardson, CEO of ACC, and Mary Blatch, ACC’s Director of Advocacy and Public Policy, draw a line between companies that look to the legal department as a kind of on-call janitorial service for cleaning up corporate messes, and companies that look to legal to set a proper “tone at the top” and prevent bad things from happening in the first place. For our money, however, what’s most interesting is the way ACC chose to hammer home its point. Richardson and Blatch turned to an unlikely source, the American songbook, and a 1978 gem by Warren Zevon, “Lawyers, Guns and Money.” Here’s the lyric they chose:
Send lawyers, guns and money.
The shit has hit the fan.
Nice choice.
Published January 9, 2019.
