Policy Client: International Sanctions Working Group at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies

Law firms’ withdrawal from Russia in the wake of the country’s brutal invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 surfaced challenging and timely questions around what it means to practice ethically in an increasingly challenging globalized context. This policy lab explores the role of lawyers in times of conflict and crisis. Western legal professionals have garnered criticism, including from Ukrainian civil society, for their alleged role as “enablers” of Russian aggression, especially by helping sanctioned individuals move and hide their wealth. The role of Western lawyers as enablers of corrupt regimes is not new; a 2006 Senate subcommittee report found that “lawyers help establish offshore structures, draft financial instruments, and provide legal opinions justifying offshore transactions.”¹ Congress responded with the 2022 ENABLERS Act, which would force lawyers to investigate the source of clients’ funds when making a transaction, the way banks currently do. The bill failed in the Senate last year however,² largely under pressure from the American Bar Association. With sanctions effectiveness being a focus of the Freeman Spogli Institute’s International Sanctions Working Group, this SLS policy practicum will contribute a unique perspective to a live area policy debate at Stanford and in Washington. Students will consider the duties of lawyers towards clients credibly linked to ongoing human rights abuses and war crimes, assessing current ABA guidelines, constitutional due process guarantees, recent policy developments like the 2022 ENABLERS Act, and the perspectives of local civil society in Ukraine and other affected areas.

Elements used in grading: Attendance, Performance, Class Participation, Written Assignments.

CONSENT APPLICATION: To apply for this course, students must submit a Consent Application Form at https://law.stanford.edu/education/courses/consent-of-instructor-forms/.

The deadline for submission of the application is Dec. 1.

Course Catalogue
Consent of Instructor – Application Portal

¹Tax Haven Abuses: The Enablers, the Tools and Secrecy, Majority & Minority Staff Report, Permanent Sub-committee on Investigations (Senate, 2006) at 14 https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/imo/media/doc/TAX%20HAVEN%20ABUSES%20REPORT%20(8-1-06)(FINAL%201-07)1.pdf.

²Will Fitzgibbon, US Senate blocks major anti-money laundering bill, the Enablers Act, ICIJ (Dec. 12, 2022), https://www.icij.org/investigations/pandora-papers/us-senate-blocks-major-anti-money-laundering-bill-the-enablers-act/.