Knowledge

“Compliance” Is Getting on My Nerves

When law professionals talk together, and one of them says “compliance”, everyone seems to understand perfectly what this is about. But not me.

Am I the only one to keep wondering: “what are they actually talking about?”

The word compliance, as such, does not mean much more than the state of something that is complying with something else. A bit general, don’t you think?

We need to be more specific: compliance with what, of what? A company could possibly comply with a lot of norms: internal regulations, permits and licences, financial legislation, codes of conduct, accounting standards, contractual obligations, best practices, guidelines, just to name a few. And within a company, who should actually comply with any such of these norms: the Board? The finance director? The legal department? The business units? Simply saying that the “organisation must comply” won’t make the headlines.

All the talk about compliance, as glamorous as it looks, does not lead the practitioner anywhere, until one gets specific and to the point. 

Antoine Henry de Frahan | 27 June 2006 |