Legal and Accounting
Legal and accounting professionals serve as key guardians of corporate governance and organisational integrity. Through their independent advice and oversight, they uphold compliance, accountability and ethical conduct at the heart of business operations. Beyond serving their clients or employers, they protect the integrity of the business environment and safeguard the public interest. In doing so, they reinforce the sustainable growth of organisations and strengthen public trust in society as a whole. Given this influential role, legal and accounting professionals must uphold the highest standard of professional ethics and remain vigilant against evolving ethical risks and challenges.
The Private Sector Integrity Centre (PSIC) offers free anti-corruption and ethics trainings to help legal and accounting practitioners stay alert to corruption risks and uphold high integrity standards. We also provide free services and useful resources to help legal and accounting firms guard against corruption and foster an ethical culture.
Corruption Risks
Legal
- Solicitors accept advantages in exchange for divulging clients’ confidential information.
- Solicitors accept advantages from clients for assisting in the preparation of false conveyancing documents to deceive banks in loan applications.
- Legal clerks of law firms, in the absence of the firms’ permissions, accept advantages from clients when conducting the firms’ affairs.
- Legal clerks of law firms misappropriate clients’ money. [General remarks for Group G’s consideration: In differentiate the solicitors working in law firms vs in-house solicitors, we propose to use a more generic term rather “in public practice” and “in business” as these terms appear more commonly used for accounting professionals.]
Accounting
- External auditors accept advantages from clients in exchange for turning a blind eye to irregularities or exceptions identified during the audit.
- External auditors accept advantages from clients to unjustifiably reduce audit sample sizes.
- External auditors accept advantages from clients to freeze, reduce or manipulate audit fee.
- Accounting professionals accept advantages to manipulate financial statements or provide misleading financial information to stakeholders.
Legal
- In-house lawyers accept advantages from contractors in exchange for turning a blind eye to, or withholding adverse legal opinions on, contract terms that present clear red flags.
- In-house lawyers accept advantages from competitor companies in exchange for divulging corporates’ confidential information.
Accounting
- Internal auditors accept advantages from colleagues in exchange for turning a blind eye to non-compliance.
- Financial accountants accept advantages from colleagues for processing claims with missing, insufficient or fraudulent documentation.
- Management accountants accept advantages from external parties in exchange for disclosing price-sensitive confidential information of their listed company.
Legal & Accounting
- Legal or accounting professionals working in accounting/law firms accept lavish or frequent meals, entertainment or other hospitality from clients that may impair their independence or objectivity.
- In-house legal or accounting professionals engage in outside work without proper approval of their employers.
- In-house legal or accounting professionals procure services or products from companies owned by their family members or close associates without proper disclosure or approval.
- In-house legal or accounting professionals disclose price-sensitive information of their publicly listed employers to friends or relatives prior to public announcement.
- In-house legal or accounting professionals approve or influence company investments in which they have personal financial interests.
Resources
Integrity Training
The Private Sector Integrity Centre (PSIC) offers free anti-corruption and integrity training to help legal and accounting professions build an ethical corporate culture and prevent corruption and fraud.
PSIC organises webinars on the “PSIC Channel” for business practitioners across various sectors and industries. Click here to view details of the upcoming webinars and enroll now!
Members of professional bodies may obtain continuing professional development (CPD) hours by attending seminars offered by PSIC.
The following professional bodies have arranged CPD seminars jointly with the PSIC:
Legal
- Association of China-Appointed Attesting Officers
- Small and Medium Law Firms Association of Hong Kong
- The Law Society of Hong Kong
Accounting
- Accounting Development Foundation
- Association of Certified Fraud Examiners Hong Kong Chapter
- The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants Hong Kong
- Association of Chinese Internal Auditors
- Association of Women Accountants (Hong Kong)
- Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (Hong Kong Division)
- CPA Australia
- Hong Kong Business Accountants Association
- Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants
- The Society of Chinese Accountants and Auditors
- The Taxation Institute of Hong Kong
＊in alphabetical order of the names of the professional bodies
Click here to see our upcoming CPD seminars for legal and accounting professionals.
PSIC provides free, tailor-made training for managers and staff of legal and accounting firms.
Please contact us if you wish to arrange integrity and corruption prevention training.
