Canadian Lawyer InHouse

MARCH 2016 20 INHOUSE Because business issues are legal issues. So if you want to get ahead in business, get the degree that gets you there faster. ONE YEAR – PART - TIME – NO THESIS FOR L AWYERS AND NON - LAWYERS law.utoronto.ca/ExecutiveLLM GPLLM Global Professional Master of Laws [Get a Master of Laws] ntitled-3 1 2015-03-02 9:02 AM "Many Canadian companies that do busi- ness internationally don't have real, effec- tive anticorruption systems in place. That is a real problem. They need to put in those controls and they need evidence that those controls are being implemented." Plenty of advice is available to organiza- tions that seek to implement anticorruption compliance programs. Experts at law fi rm CMS Cameron McKenna LLP, for in- stance, say an effective system involves: • Commitment from the company's senior management to the program • Implementation of ethics and conduct codes • Periodic employee and third-party training • Program auditing and monitoring • Procedures to prevent fraud in bidding and performance on government contracts As for the ongoing corruption investiga- tions, the world waits to fi nd out if Brazil's new laws and regulations are effective. "We have to see some follow-through on these cases," Boscariol says. "We've heard about all sorts of investigations, but we haven't seen those come to completion." Faass, for one, believes that the outcomes of those investigations could affect Brazil's business mindset. "Whether there's a change in the way business is done here for the better will really ultimately depend on the percep- tion that corrupt conduct has been punished regardless of who committed it," he says. Canadian companies with Brazilian op- erations seem to be waiting to see what hap- pens next, too. Meanwhile, they aren't say- ing much. None of the in-house lawyers we contacted for this article would participate in an interview. That Brazil's anticorruption systems are more sophisticated than previous measures gives legal experts hope for the country's future. Mota Prado makes the point that the new legislation allows the government to hold companies accountable, whereas previous laws only targeted individuals. Knowing that an entire organization could be held responsible for the underhanded ac- tivities of even a few bad apples makes com- panies less tolerant of fraud, she says. Barutciski says Brazil still has a lot to rec- ommend it, despite headlines fraught with fraud and the challenging global fi nancial environment. Oil prices are low, which may well hamper the nation's economy for many years to come, but the populace is smart, am- bitious, and apparently unafraid to face up to challenges such as wide-reaching corruption among the business and political elite. "It's going through a very tough patch right now, no question," Barutciski says of the country's current state of affairs. "But on the whole, I'm still optimistic for Brazil." IH '' '' To Brazil's credit, the provisions in the Clean Company Act are probably the most strict I've seen around the world. JOHN BOSCARIOL, McCarthy Tétrault LLP

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