Maya Forstater

If they’re acting for clients, absolutely. If they’re not, then of course not.

what if they're acting in the interests of their current, past and prospective clients generally, rather than a specific client(s)? this happens all the time.

It really does. Can’t really comment on the tax world but have seen it a lot when lawyers talk about NDAs. Lots of lawyers feel they can’t openly because they’ll upset wealthy clients.

Jeremy, you do understand that's completely different? If an activist sticks to their organisation's agreed advocacy position, even if their own view is (say) more nuanced, it's a good faith decision taken for the greater good - not a question of personal financial motivation.

When I started publicly campaigning against tax avoidance everybody - pretty much literally - told me it would damage my practice. Two things seem to follow from this. First, the converse is also likely to be true: tax professionals will also perceive advancing their clients' ...

interests in the public policy sphere to be (in effect) a paid activity. And, second, given that as paid advocates lawyers often argue points of view they don't personally hold, I don't really see that one can ignore the professional stance from which one argues. For the...