March, which marks Ethics Awareness Month, gave us at the Center for Compliance and Ethics the opportunity to reflect on the importance of organizational ethics. Unethical behavior damages organizational reputations, lowers employee morale, and erodes public trust. Effective compliance and ethics programs built on an ethical culture and led by compliance and ethics officers are essential to the success of any organization.
The role of a compliance and ethics officer today is interesting and complex, necessitating an understanding of law and regulatory expectations, the drivers of organizational culture and individual behavior, and the ability to grasp evolving business strategies. Compliance and ethics is also a rapidly growing profession, projected to increase in the U.S. alone by 4.6 percent between 2019 and 2029.
In recognition of these trends, Temple Law established the Center for Compliance and Ethics in 2015 with the goal of improving the understanding and practice of compliance and ethics across disciplines, industries, and sectors. The Center offers a comprehensive compliance and ethics curriculum, experiential learning opportunities, and summer fellowships to students and executive education programs for U.S. and international compliance professionals. The Center publishes interdisciplinary scholarship, hosts academic events, and facilitates dialogues between regulators and industry leaders.
Temple Law students may enroll in foundational compliance classes as well as specialized courses on healthcare, international, and financial services. During this semester, our students are participating in practicums at Aramark, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Jackson Laboratory, the PA Office of Inspector General, Temple Health, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Philadelphia. In 2021, students can also apply for summer fellowships at Amicus Therapeutics, Comcast, Lincoln Financial Group, Novo Nordisk, Olympus, Otsuka Pharmaceuticals, and Tabula Rasa Healthcare.
The Center is also a leader in educating compliance and ethics professionals. In partnership with the Fox Business School, we are launching an innovative and interdisciplinary program to provide lawyers, accountants, and other compliance and ethics professionals with the skills and competencies necessary to effectively manage business interactions.
We are also expanding our education programs beyond the U.S. In November 2019, in partnership with Temple University Japan, we launched an Asia Advisory Committee in Tokyo, with plans to launch executive education programs in Japan by the end of 2021.
In 2020-21, we have hosted roundtables on the implications of COVID on compliance and ethics programs in the U.S. and Asia, published monthly compliance and ethics features in Temple Law’s 10-Q, and distributed cutting-edge scholarship through the Compliance & Risk Management eJournal, and launched with the Social Science Research Network.
Our goal remains to create significant opportunities for our students, serve as a forum for private-public sector dialogues, and be a leading voice through our research, ultimately positioning Temple at the forefront of this rapidly evolving field.
If you have any questions about the Center for Compliance and Ethics at Temple University Beasley School of Law, you can contact Beatrice Raccanello at beatrice.raccanello@temple.edu.
This article originally appeared in Voices at Temple Law, Temple Law School’s blog dedicated to sharing perspectives, lessons, and insights from around the Temple Law School community.