Leona Helmsley was reputed to have said that “taxes are for the little people,” and much the same attitude characterizes how some senior business leaders view compliance and ethics (C&E). Although the Sentencing Guidelines provide that “High-level personnel of the organization shall ensure that the organization has an effective compliance and ethics program,” it is not uncommon for such personnel to feel that they have no individual responsibility for the success of their company’s C&E program.

To some extent, this is the fault of those who advise senor managers. A study published in 2007 – Johnson and Ricca, “(Not) Advising Corporate Officers About Fiduciary Duties,” 42 Wake Forest Law Review 663 – found that many corporate lawyers “do not provide full-bodied fiduciary duty advice to officers in their capacity as officers at all,” and it seems doubtful that the situation has improved since then.

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We don’t yet know the lessons compliance and ethics professionals can learn from the SEC’s recent lawsuit against Goldman Sachs. While it is still being determined whether Goldman did anything illegal, legitimate issues are surfacing – transparency and conflicts of interest, for example. A few random thoughts come to mind as the issue unfolds:

#1 – People judging the situation would do well to apply a healthy dose of dispassionate analysis. Acting on emotion results in jumping on bandwagons and other irresponsible reactions. Understanding the facts and circumstances in the Goldman case requires time and dedication, as the domains in which they operate are complex.

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Boards of directors need – and sometimes ask for – news of significant Compliance & Ethics (C&E)-related legal developments. Here are three board-worthy stories for such an update.

First, the C&E provisions of “Corporate” Sentencing Guidelines are being amended, effective November 1. In brief, these amendments: