Legal and Conduct Risk in the Financial Markets

Joanna Benjamin, Journal of International Banking Law and Regulation (JIBLR), 2007, issue 2 Review from previous edition The first to wrestle legal risk to the floor, McCormick speaks in an eminently reassuring voice. Solicitors are problem solvers, and McCormick has engaged a (considerable) problem, observed its characteristics, mapped its watering holes, and made very sensible suggestions for keeping the beast at bay.

Joanna Benjamin, JIBLR, 2007, issue 2 The book enters a number of familiar doctrinal debates, including charge-backs, property interests in indirectly held securities, changes on book debts. The technical difficulty of these is so great, and the controversy surrounding them so intractable that, generally speaking, the more one reads, the more lost one becomes. McCormick's gift is...to see doctrine as a resource and not as a burden. He is able to pick out the few essential propositions, and suggest a sensible way forward (saving all of us a lot of time).

Simon Gleeson, JIBLR, 2006, issue 8 Of the many admirable qualities of the book, perhaps the most admirable is its approach. [...] What it does do is provide a toolkit using which (sic) both lawyers and non-lawyers can begin to approach each other and to develop a mutual understanding.

Matteo Solinas, Edinburgh Law Review The book is stimulating and informative. There is reference to almost every conceivable aspect of the recent financial crisis, from its origins to the legal and regulatory responses in the UK and elsewhere.

Gabriel Gmez Giglio, Journal of International Banking Law and Regulation. This is essential reading for every banking and corporate lawyer and it is an absolute must for anyone involved in setting out rules or guidelines in the management of legal risk...Overall this book represents a significant contribution in this complex area of law.

William Johnston, IBA Legal Practice Division Newletter, Dec 2006 It is.... a book that every finance lawyer should read before starting his or her career." "This is an essential read for every banking and corporate lawyer and it is an absolute must for anyone involved in setting out rules or guidelines in the management of legal risk.

Philip Wood, Head, Allen & Overy Global Law Intelligence Unit An excellent and insightful examination of legal risk in financial markets written by an experienced senior practitioner in the field. This work is a major contribution to legal risk management, and full of sound and sensible advice. A pioneering and perceptive work. The second edition has illuminating chapters on the recent financial crisis and its implications for legal risks

Journal of Risk and Insurance This financial crisis highlights the importance of the work by McCormick, daring because not even the financial markets understand the legal risks involved, and few lawyers, if any, would really understand the complexity of all the financial products. The book is therefore useful to ...

Roger McCormick is a past Director of the Sustainable Finance Project at London School of Economics and Political Science, and a past Visiting Professor at LSE. He is now the Managing Director of CCP Research Foundation .He retired from full-time private legal practice in 2004, having practised law in the City of London for nearly thirty years. Chris Stears is a solicitor, a fellow of the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment, Research Director at CCP Research Foundation and principal at Medius Consulting.

Introduction Part I: The General Context 1: Why Legal and Conduct Risk are Important: a Short History 2: Risk And Capital 3: Legal and Conduct Risk in the London Market 4: The Global Context 5: The Lawmaker, the Regulator, and Current Preoccupations Part II: The Financial Crisis of 2007-2009 6: Market and Regulatory Failure 7: The Initial Impact of the Financial Crisis on Financial Markets 8: The Initial Legal and Regulatory Responses to the Financial Crisis in the UK 9: The Initial Response to the Financial Crisis by the EU and Elsewhere Part III: The Conduct Crisis 10: The Impact of the LIBOR Scandal: Concerns about Misconduct & Findings of the Conduct Costs Project 11: Sustainability, Responsibility, Public Trust, Ethical Drift and the 'Social Licence' Concept 12: Ethics & Banking Standards Part IV: Early Perceptions of Legal Risk 13: Financial Services Act 2012: Changes to Regulatory Architecture 14: Financial Services (Banking Reform) Act 2013 15: Individual Accountability 16: General Legal and Conduct Risk Implications of the Crises and Regulator-led Redress Part V: Legal and Conduct Risk In Interconnected Financial Markets 17: Legal and Conduct Risk in a Globalizing Financial Market 18: The Role of International Institutions in Financial Law Reform 19: Brexit Part VI: Early Perceptions of Legal Risk 20: A Landmark Case and its Aftermath 21: A Case of Conceptual Impossibility 22: Settling Differences Part VII: Characteristics of Legal Risk 23: Definition 24: Sources of Legal Risk 25: Causation Part VIII: Examples of Legal Risk 26: Property Interests in Indirectly Held Investment Securities 27: Vague Laws 28: Recharacterization Part IX: Legal and Conduct Risk Management 29: The Essentials of Legal and Conduct Risk Management 30: Lawyers' Responsibility for the Management of Legal and Conduct Risk 31: Metrics in Conduct Risk and Reputational Management: Predictions and Perception 32: Managing the "Grey Areas"; Standards, Scenario Analysis and Case Studies Part X: Conclusions 33: A Convergence of Agendas Appendices