7 - Poul Schmith/Kammeradvokaten and Legal Knowledge in Complex Corporate Investigations

Summary

Kammeradvokaten is a law firm in Denmark. In addition to advising private Danish and international clients, it has been the preferred legal adviser to the Danish government since 1939 according to text on its website (www.poulschmith.com), where the firm carries both the name Kammeradvokaten and the name Poul Schmith. The firm mentions its services on this website, which include arbitration, acquisition, compliance, and investigation (www.poulschmith.com, accessed August 16, 2021):

Sometimes an internal investigation is a necessary step in order to uncover all facts and legal issues in a specific situation. Our specialists are very experienced in carrying out internal investigations. An internal investigation may be the appropriate response to suspicious or unusual circumstances in an organization if the cause cannot be identified through the usual measures. A professional investigation may, for example, be required in case of suspected criminal activities in the organization. In such situations it is often advisable to have the circumstances investigated by external and independent specialists in the form of a legal investigation. An investigation carried out by an external law firm will also help calm down the situation while the matter is being examined and any liability clarified.

Two reports of investigations by lawyers at Kammeradvokaten became publicly available in 2020, and thus the reports are relevant for the review of the role of the lawyer of corporate investigator given here. First, the report on the Banedanmark railroad is reviewed extensively (Kammeradvokaten, 2020a), followed by a shorter review of the report on Ejendomsstyrelse property management agency (Kammeradvokaten, 2020b).

1. THE BANEDANMARK RAILROAD INVESTIGATION

In the summer of 2018, Banedanmark noticed an article in the Danish newspaper Berlingske that stated there were rumors of financial crime having been committed by some employees in the public railroad maintenance organization for several years. Banedanmark is a stateowned company that is responsible for operating and maintaining the entire Danish railway network. The company outsources several service functions to outside vendors. The newspaper article was based on journalists having received a number of anonymous tip-offs related to 23 named employees who were still or had previously been employed by Banedanmark. The tip-offs suggested that employees were guilty of misconduct and illegal activities such as bribery and abuse of power when cooperating with subcontractors over several years (Jessen and Jung, 2020; Jung and Jessen, 2020).