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The Dynamic Authority of Advisories

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Professional Authority After the Global Financial Crisis

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Abstract

This chapter traces the dynamic authority of prominent actuaries such as David Li; leading financial consulting firms like AT Kearney and Oliver Wyman; as well as the bulge-bracket legal groups Allen & Overy, Baker & MacKenzie, and Clifford Chance. The expert identities that long underpinned the pre-crisis authority of these advisories became deeply contested in the 2007–8 global financial crisis. Discontinuities in the discursive emphases of these professionals subsequently occurred as previously backgrounded macro-level ethical issues became explicitly stressed in the aftermath of the crisis. The agency exercised by leading advisories culminated in subtle attempts to re-legitimate professional power following contestations of authority in the traumatic crisis of 2007–8.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    A subsidiary of Thomson Reuters offers legal “knowledge management” services, see <http://legalsolutions.thomsonreuters.com/law-products/solutions/westkm>. The legal research firm Bureau of National Affairs was acquired by Bloomberg LP in 2011 as part of a nearly $1 billion deal to further develop the latter’s legal research division.

  2. 2.

    Chapter 3 details the conflicts of interest afflicting the credit rating agencies who advise their clients on how to improve their credit ratings.

  3. 3.

    Chapter 6 provides further details on these consulting services.

  4. 4.

    For further examples of overlaps between accounting and legal professionals in the wealth management industry, see Harrington (2015).

  5. 5.

    See for instance <http://www.oliverwyman.com/what-we-do/actuarial.html> and <http://www.oliverwyman.com/insights/actuarial.html>.

  6. 6.

    Hirschman and Berman (2014: 17) describe how “[s]ince the 1970s, it has become standard for law and public policy students to receive basic education in economics, and many programmes are heavily grounded in economic reasoning,” see also Davies (2011) as well as Hersch and Viscusi (2012).

  7. 7.

    As Louise Amoore (2013: 79) reminds us, the Latin consulto suggests “to ask the advice of.”

  8. 8.

    Chinese-born Li headed credit derivatives research analytics at both Citigroup and Barclays’ banks in the years preceding the 2007–8 crisis. After the crisis, Li returned to China before serving as head of asset modelling at AIG, see his profile at https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-x-li-0864a07.

  9. 9.

    For a detailed overview of earlier attempts of insurers to incorporate climate change risks see Paterson (2001).

  10. 10.

    <http://www.bakermckenzie.com/hu-HU/Environmental/>.

  11. 11.

    <http://www.davispolk.com/practices/corporate/environmental/>.

  12. 12.

    <http://islamicfinancenews.com/awards.asp>.

  13. 13.

    <http://www.allenovery.com/expertise/practices/islamic-finance/Pages/default.aspx>.

  14. 14.

    <http://www.bakermckenzie.com/de-DE/IslamicFinance/>.

  15. 15.

    <http://www.oliverwyman.com/what-we-do/sustainability.html>.

  16. 16.

    <http://www.linklaters.com/News/LatestDeals/2014/Pages/UK-Government-debut-sovereign-sukuk.aspx>.

  17. 17.

    <http://www.isfin.net/node/434>

  18. 18.

    See <http://www.ifconsultants.org/dipib.html> and <http://www.ifconsultants.org/certif.htmls>.

  19. 19.

    The SIAS represents and serves “the interests of younger members of the actuarial profession, whilst also acting as the London region actuarial society” (<http://www.sias.org.uk/>).

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  1. Balsillie School of International Affairs, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

    Malcolm Campbell-Verduyn

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Campbell-Verduyn, M. (2017). The Dynamic Authority of Advisories. In: Professional Authority After the Global Financial Crisis. Building a Sustainable Political Economy: SPERI Research & Policy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-52782-6_5

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