Why ethics, not law, may be the hardest part of the GC role
Conversations at the ACC Europe Conference in Copenhagen revealed the wide range of ethical dilemmas confronting in-house lawyers, from safeguarding employees in conflict zones to handling whistleblower reports and maintaining independence from management
by flavio caci
Experts: Andrea Moretti, legal director at eBay Italy and Spain and ACC country representative for Italy; Fatima Correia da Silva, global head of compliance at Elementis and ACC country representative for Portugal; Claudio Elia, group vice president at STMicroelectronics and ACC country representative for Switzerland
For in-house lawyers, drawing a straight before-and-after line beyond which a legal issue automatically becomes a matter of ethics can prove a tricky, yet essential, exercise. Among those gathered in Copenhagen at the beginning of June for the annual ACC Europe Conference, the conversation on how to separate ethical questions from the rest of the legal agenda served as a starting point for a discussion of their own ethical dilemmas.
Andrea Moretti, legal director at eBay Italy and Spain and ACC country representative for Italy, who moderated a panel on “Ethics Under Pressure” at the conference, noted a recurring pattern emerging from his daily work. When a circumstance is purely legal, the solution appears to be the same every time: understanding where more knowledge is required. When a question carries ethical weight, however, he feels out of his comfort zone, as values, more than knowledge, dictate the solution. Under that lens, ethical dilemmas can enter in-house agendas in the most varied shapes and circumstances.
Present in Copenhagen throughout the conference, MAG spoke directly with general counsel and legal leaders, listening to the conversations taking place both on stage and on the sidelines. Across those exchanges, three themes emerged as the most pressing ethical fault lines facing general counsel today. The first concerns geopolitics and the duty to protect employees and operations amid growing global instability. The second revolves around internal investigations, where the search for truth must be balanced against fairness, trust and the risk of retaliation. The third centres on independence itself: preserving the legal function’s ability to challenge management and safeguard the longterm interests of the company, even when doing so means taking uncomfortable positions.
GLOBAL GEOPOLITICS AND INTERNAL INVESTIGATIONS
The enduring climate of geopolitical instability emerged as a constant backdrop across discussions in the conference rooms of Copenhagen, pointing out how one of the epicentres of that instability, the Strait of Hormuz, posed an urgent ethical dilemma for many companies.
Since Iran closed the critical global oil chokepoint in retaliation for the US-Israeli attacks at the end of February, the International Maritime Organization has reported more than 2,000 vessels stranded in the Persian Gulf. Throughout the period between the outbreak of the crisis and mid-June 2026 – before a deal was announced by the prime minister of Pakistan, whose country had been mediating the conflict – the most common ethical dilemma for companies was on how to keep workers trapped in the region safe.
As evident as the distance between a geopolitical crisis with global resonance and an internal investigation confined to a boardroom table may be, people remain at the centre of inhouse lawyers’ discussions on ethical issues. Internal investigations often place legal and compliance teams in one of their most uncomfortable positions: balancing the duty to uncover the truth with the need to protect individuals, preserve trust and avoid unnecessary reputational damage. The ethical challenge, in other words, is not only how to investigate, but how to do so without creating new victims in the process.
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