Our Purpose: Helping people around the world do the right thing.
Inspiring people to do the right thing is the essence of principled performance. It is about inspired rather than required behavior—living principles beyond following rules. It is about doing the next right thing and not just the next thing right. Ultimately, principled performance leads to healthier, profitable organizations.
What we do
We believe behavior is the greatest source of competitive advantage.
Our ethics and compliance business helps partners navigate an increasingly complex ethical and regulatory environment.
Our governance, culture and leadership practice can fundamentally transform an organization’s culture and operational capabilities to build long-term economic value through elevated leadership.
Around the globe, our people and solutions are fueled by the idea that HOW individuals and organizations do business is a strategic differentiator in a hyper-transparent and interdependent world.
Our Story
We are not a business with a mission. We are a mission with a business.
Years before Enron’s acts of fraud and the recent financial crisis, LRN was founded on the belief that society is better off when legal & ethical knowledge is accessible to all. We are proud to have been helping corporations act responsibly long before “Corporate Social Responsibility” became fashionable
Use the left and right arrows to read more about our growth and milestones
1986 – Due to eroded public confidence, leading defense contractors form the Defense Industry Initiative on Business Ethics and Conduct (DII). DII Principles become the basis for early corporate compliance programs
1991 – The first governmental expectations of “effective programs to prevent and detect criminal conduct.” In addition to unprecedentedly huge fines for offences, the FSGO created an incentive for companies: those with an established, effective compliance program at the time of the offense could be treated much more leniently
1994 – LRN, the Legal Research Network, opens for business in Los Angeles to provide shared-cost legal expertise for corporate legal departments
1995 – Trader Nick Leeson causes Barings Bank’s collapse after incurring $1.3 billion in losses
1997 – Delaware Chancery Court rules in Caremark case that corporate directors have compliance-program-related fiduciary duties to monitor compliance with the law
1997 – A group of leading partners team up with LRN to create a charter group bringing together the latest thinking in legal research
1999 – LRN launches the Legal Compliance and Ethics Center (LCEC) to deliver learning through an online library and custom courses
2001 – Enron becomes largest bankruptcy in U.S. history at that time, leading to criminal investigation and conviction of senior executives for accounting fraud. Arthur Andersen convicted of obstruction of justice for destruction of evidence related to Enron, becoming first accounting firm ever to be convicted of a felony. The firm goes out of business
2001 – The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adopts policy that provides (among other things) for giving credit in enforcement decisions to issuers with compliance programs
2002 – Sarbanes-Oxley Act passed
2002 – WorldCom surpasses Enron to become biggest bankruptcy in U.S. history, after disclosing that it had improperly accounted for $3.8 billion of expenses
2003 – NYSE and NASDAQ listed companies required to adopt codes of ethics and conduct
2004 – FSGO introduces requirement of promoting a culture of compliance
2004 – LRN develops 100th ethics & compliance training course
2004 – LRN founder testifies before the U.S. Sentencing Commission on the importance of culture and values-based ethics programs
2005 – 100th partner joins LRN
2007 – LRN opens London office
2007 – HOW: Why How We Do Anything Means Everything…In Business (And In Life) by LRN founder Dov Seidman is published
2007 – LRN reaches 20 million course completions
2008 – Siemens pays fines totaling $1.6 billion, then the largest amount ever paid by a corporation, for systemic FCPA violations
2008 – LRN launches Ethics & Compliance Alliance
2008 – LRN enters into partnership with the Elie Weisel Foundation for Humanity, sponsoring annual prizes in ethics
2009 – LRN opens Mumbai office
2009 – HOW translated in 32 languages
2010 – LRN joins United Nations Global Compact
2010 – UK’s Bribery Act 2010 passed
2010 – Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act passed
2011– LRN moves into LEED-certified New York City headquarters
2012 – LRN releases the HOW Report, a global, empirical research report with 2 million data points, analyzing how governance, culture and leadership impact the performance of organizations
2012 – U.S. Department of Justice and the SEC issue unprecedented joint guidance on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
2013 – The SEC’s Office of the Whistleblower awards its first bounty, and receives approximately 6,000 tips
2013 – LRN’S 6th annual Ethics & Compliance Leadership Survey Report released
2014 – LRN ranks first in CEB’S training activities and training effectiveness survey
2014 – New ethics & compliance courses win multiple training effectiveness awards
2014 – The Freedom Report released at the World Economic Forum
2015 – FIFA embroiled in scandal as senior officials are indicted for bribery
2015 – Volkswagen CEO resigns in wake of revelations that the company falsified emissions data on thousands of vehicles
2015 – LRN releases industry’s first mobile Code of Conduct app
2015 – Dov Seidman delivers keynote address to United Nations Global Compact gathering
2015 – LRN reaches 100 million course completion
