are actually a discrete type of conflict and an umbrella term to refer to and commercial conflicts. It is important to consider each in turn.
A true Own Interest Conflict arises where a member of the firm has a personal connection to a party involved in the matter. In order to flag this Central Office maintains an Own Interest Register which comprises employment, consultancies (including at other law firms), directorships (executive and non-executive, governorships, trusteeships, executorships, shareholdings (more than 5%) and other material connection for all colleagues in the firm and their immediate household. On joining we ask you to declare your personal interests. These are subject to change. Each year we will remind you to check that your registered interests remain correct and make any updates. You can do this via the Personal Interests tab in Keyed-in. You must not wait for this reminder before updating the register.
By keeping the registers up to date, we should be able to avoid a conflict of interest. However, if during a matter a conflict arises, then you must notify the MLRO as soon as possible, regardless of whether you are personally involved in that matter or not.
A specific example of an Own Interest Conflict is where we may not be able to act for a construction company bidding for a construction contract at a school where a member of the firm is also a governor of the school deciding on who gets the contract.
The register contains three columns. In the first column you name the entity or person to which/whom you are connected. In the second column, you choose the nature of the connection. In the third column, you tell us if it's your interest or an indirect interest through someone in your household. So, if your spouse owns 10% in XYZ Inc, then, in column order, your register would read "XYZ Inc: Shareholding : Indirect."
If you have any questions as to whether you have an Own Interest Conflict, then you should contact the MLRO.
Commercial conflicts arise where the commercial relationship between the firm and one client stands to be damaged by accepting a new matter for an existing or prospective client, or in some cases where an existing matter changes that such a conflict arises. These can take a range of forms. For example i) starting acting for a new client which is a material competitor to an existing client (e.g. acting for Coca-Cola when we already act for Pepsi), ii) acting on a matter where the other side is a party with which we have an active client relationship or an active client referral relationship. The Code does not prevent us from acting in the event of a commercial conflict, though there are some instances where we will choose not to act in order to be fair to colleagues. This is explained in the following section.
A specific example of a commercial conflict is where we may not be able to advise an employee on a claim against its employer where we also advise the employer on other matters, i.e. not on employment law matters.