Hace algunos años dediqué un trabajo a analizar lo que me parecía que era una tendencia incipiente en el funcionamiento de las sociedades cotizadas y una consecuencia directa del gobierno corporativo. Me refería en aquel trabajo a la conversión de los abogados en una suerte de instrumentos adicionales de control para la mejor administración de las sociedades cotizadas, tomando en cuenta la concreción que de esa tendencia supuso la Ley Sarbanes Oxley en el año 2002.
En relación con ello, me encuentro en el siempre interesante y divertido blog del Profesor Bainbridge una referencia a un reciente artículo suyo titulado “Corporate Lawyers as Gatekeepers” en el que aborda, casi 10 años después de la aprobación de la Ley Sarbanes Oxley, el papel asignado a los abogados, que ha cobrado importancia con la reaparición de la crisis en estos últimos años, provocando que se vuelva a cuestionar el buen funcionamiento de gobierno corporativo. Tomo los párrafos más significativos del resumen de dicho trabajo:
In fact, however, lawyers often play a reputational intermediary role not dissimilar to that of an auditor. A very high profile general counsel or law firm partner, for example, can give a client in trouble the benefit of the lawyer’s reputation for probity and upstanding ethics.
Usually, of course, counsel play a more behind the scenes role, but it is still a gatekeeping role. Specifically, transactional counsel and in-house lawyers are well positioned to intervene by blocking the effectiveness of a defective registration statement or prevent the consummation of a transaction, to cite but two examples. In many recent financial crises, however, lawyers all too often failed to be effective gatekeepers. In the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX), Congress directed the Securities and Exchange Commission to adopt rules of ethics governing lawyers who appear or practice before the Commission.
As adopted, the post-SOX rules give lawyers what purports to be a very “simple” up-the-ladder reporting obligation. As one proponent explained counsel’s duty: “You report the violation [to top managemkent]. If the violation isn’t addressed properly, then you go to the board of directors].”
Despite SOX’s many strictures in this and other areas, however, a new and even more devastating financial crisis came in 2008 when the subprime mortgage market’s troubles nearly brought the entire banking system to its knees. Once again, questions are being asked about the role lawyers played in this crisis. A reassessment of SOX’s legal ethics rules thus is in order”.
Madrid, 9 de febrero de 2012
