On January 24-26, 2017, the University of Illinois College of Law and the Center for Professional Responsibility in Business and Society teamed up to offer a special three-day program for attorneys and corporate professionals who wanted to learn more about ethics and compliance. This Ethics and Compliance Certificate Program is a new executive education program that meets the needs of attorneys, as well as corporate and human resources professionals, who want an interactive and timely course on a broad range of ethics and compliance topics.

For practicing attorneys, the program fulfilled some of the continuing legal education requirements they need to continue to practice in Illinois and certain other states. Participants examined the pertinent compliance laws and guidelines, obtained and applied global benchmarking and self-assessment tools for organizations, and learned about the core elements of an effective ethics and compliance program, including codes of business conduct, risk assessments, helpline/hotline, whistleblower protection programs, and confidentiality clauses.

This joint program is also an accredited university compliance and ethics program for Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics (SCCE) certification purposes. Presenters at the workshop included the following experts in the area of professional ethics and compliance:

• Joan Dubinsky, JD, Fellow of the Center for Professional Responsibility in Business and Society, recently retired chief ethics officer of the United Nations, co-author of Global Ethics and Integrity Benchmarks, former chief ethics officer for the International Monetary Fund, former ethics officer for the associate general counsel and corporate secretary for the American Red Cross, and founder of Rosentreter Group. She presented the 2015 Leighton Lecture on Ethics and Leadership.
• Diane Nobles, JD, has worked for over 30 years in ethics, compliance, privacy, and corporate governance and has worked for such multinational companies as Dow Chemical, Baxter Healthcare, Caremark, CVS, and BP. She presented the 2016 Leighton Lecture on Ethics and Leadership.
• Nicola Faith Sharpe, JD, MBA, University of Illinois Professor of Law and Director of the Chicago Business Law Program, where her research and teaching focuses on organizational behavior and strategy within corporations, and a former Sherman & Sterling LLP attorney, where she counseled corporate clients on antitrust matters.
• Zack Starbird, JD, is the managing attorney for BP's American-based crude and refined products trading business. He has been a frequent judge for the Professional Responsibility Strategy Competition, sponsored by the Center for Professional Responsibility in Business and Society and BP.
• Richard Wallace, JD, is a senior compliance executive with over 25 years total experience as a chief compliance officer, as a regulator with the SEC and FINRA, and as a partner at a national law firm.
• Patricia Werhane, PhD and Ruffin Professor Emerita-University of Virginia, Wicklander Professor Emerita- DePaul University, Executive Producer of the Emmy Award winning television series BIG QUESTIONS, and prolific scholar in business ethics and philosophy.
• Gretchen Winter, JD and Executive Director of the University of Illinois College of Business Center for Professional Responsibility in Business and Society, adjunct professor in law and business at the University of Illinois and the Université de Cergy-Pontoise, incoming chair of the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics, former board chair of the Ethics and Compliance Officer Association, and former vice president of business practices at Baxter International Inc.

One participant sent a note following the certificate program that said, “I would like to thank you very much for the exceptional job you did in putting together the Ethics and Compliance Certificate program. I really enjoyed the program and thought it was truly remarkable.”