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Comprehensive guidelines to boost the roles of and relationships between in-house lawyers and non-executive directors have been drawn up, in the hope of minimising the chances of an ethical lapse.

In-house lawyers have been significantly slower to adopt technology than their counterparts in business, according to a prominent legal technology innovator. Former in-house lawyer D Casey Flaherty, an advisor to Dentons’ lawtech incubator NextLaw Labs, said lawyers as a group were “reluctant” to embrace technology

Half of in-house lawyers face having to advise on ethically or legally debatable actions, while a similar number complain that actions are sometimes taken against their advice on “legally important matters”, a major report has revealed.

More than three quarters of general counsel lack separate budgets for process and technology services, despite exactly the same percentage identifying a “compelling need” for them, a survey has found. “To have a compelling need, but have no budgetary control is potentially ‘creek, canoe, no paddle’ territory”, it said.

There is evidence to suggest that some of the largest law firms are making errors on the ethical approach of their corporate lawyers, while solicitors’ code of conduct is “hopelessly silent” on the problems of commercial practice, according to a leading academic.