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Legal advice
As a leading Danish law firm we hold a special position in a community founded on the rule of law. Our aim is to attract and retain clients requesting the most informed and specialised legal advice in the market. That is why our partners (the owners of the firm) have committed each other to provide legal advice of the highest ethical and professional standard.
We only employ people who are the best in their fields and we strongly believe in continued profes- sional and personal development. We do this by setting up highly professional specialist departments and teams. We also maintain close international ties with leading law firms in all relevant countries.
One of our partners has been appointed compliance officer and his primary task is to see to it that external rules governing our profession are transformed into internal rules and to ensure compliance with these rules. It goes without saying that we comply with the Danish Act on Measures to Prevent Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism. We have also laid down restrictive rules for our partners’ and employees’ business activities outside the firm. And we have set up internal procedures to prevent insider trading. Our compliance officer reports directly to the board of directors.
The past year
Plesner’s ambition is to be a market leader in providing legal advice in the most challenging and com- plex cases. During the past year our work has once again been noticed and we have received several international top rankings, primarily based on interviews with law firms and clients. Chambers Global, Chambers Europe, Legal 500 and International Financial Law Review (IFLR) place Plesner in the highest category (Band 1) in a number of legal practice areas. In the spring of 2016, Plesner also became the first Danish law firm ever to be named Nordic Law Firm of the Year by the recognised international law journal The Lawyer.
Plesner is extremely restrictive when it comes to preventing and avoiding conflicts of interest. Our systems have been designed to catch and prevent any conflicts as early as possible. We have further developed the procedures which help us ensure that there are no conflicts of interests or loyalty when we accept assignments. Before committing to an assignment, we also assess whether the client and the specific task comply with Plesner’s ethical standards.
An important element of our CSR policy is that our working methods match the high reputation of the legal profession. We therefore find that it is both right, natural and responsible to offer our services
to the General Council of the Danish Bar and Law Society, the supervising authority of the Danish law profession. In June 2015, Plesner Partner and Attorney Peter Fogh was elected as the new chairman
of the General Council for the Danish Bar and Law Society for a period of four years. It is an important position of trust that requires hard work, and it has an impact on the entire legal profession.
The coming year
During the coming year we will work on taking up and reinforcing our position as a market leading law firm in key legal practice areas. It is important to us that we continuously strengthen our ability to provide business-focused, value-adding and ethically unassailable legal advice to our clients. We will continue to work for human rights and corporate governance and fight corruption, supported by a number of newly developed tools to make compliance in these areas easier for businesses. Money laundering and the financing of terrorism are generally subject to increased focus both in Denmark and internationally. The growing regulatory requirements for documentation pose an increasing challenge to the business community.
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