Compliance Framework
Gerson Lehrman Group's Terms & Conditions are designed to protect you, our firm and our clients. To qualify as a GLG Network Member, you must complete the Network Member Tutorial and sign the GLG Terms & Conditions of Network Membership.
This document is intended as an introduction to GLG's approach to compliance.
Educate Business & Investment Leaders
The emergence of Gerson Lehrman Group's research platform to facilitate clients' primary research and to build and manage knowledge networks is transforming how decision-makers conduct research and diligence. Professionals at a growing number of investment firms, corporations, consultancies, law firms and non-profits are use the Gerson Lehrman Group platform and the GLG Councils to simplify the difficult tasks of identifying, profiling and contracting with subject matter experts.
While these interactions can be essential to the education of decision-makers, there is also an understanding that many experts have important obligations that limit how and the subjects on which they may consult. As the pioneer and leader of this industry, GLG has developed a framework to meet decision-maker needs while at the same time helping experts to honor the obligations they owe to the organizations with which they are affiliated.
Since its inception in 1999, GLG has worked with thousands of clients and experts.
Standard of Conduct
Our compliance system begins with two essential conditions:
- Network Members must complete the Network Member Tutorial and formally agree to the Gerson Lehrman Group Terms and Conditions before participating in a project with one of our clients. The Terms and Conditions is a binding contract that requires Network Members, among other things, (a) to discuss only those matters that the Network Member is permitted to discuss, (b) to abide by GLG's compliance rules and (c) to terminate immediately any consulting project that moves into subject matter that a Network Member cannot discuss. Network Members who terminate projects for this reason are paid for the time they set aside for the project.
- Network Members must honor their obligations to employers or third parties that apply to consulting activity and GLG will inform Network Members of any known guidelines that a company has established for its employees.
Systems and Standards for Appropriate Engagements
In addition to the underlying contract signed by every Network Member, each specific interaction is governed and often constrained by standards and safeguards.
- Network Members have the responsibility and are afforded the opportunity to assess and explicitly accept consulting projects before interacting with a client.
- Network Members are systematically solicited to disclose specific restricted subjects. GLG systematically asks Network Members to disclose any restrictions on their ability to consult on specific subjects. GLG's innovative Disclosure Management System enables human-language questions to elicit restricted topics, and then stores the information provided to help block future projects on restricted subjects. GLG also provides enables Network Members to disclose their Off Limit Topics in their GLG Profiles.
- Network Members who are employees of companies may not engage in projects about their own company.
Based on both client and Network Member feedback, GLG requires that an industry expert who is employed must not consult about his/her employer.
- Network Members who are employees of companies may not consult with known competitors of their company.
Similarly, GLG does not allow a Network Member to participate in phone consultations with an entity he/she knows to be a competitor of the Network Member's employer.
- Network Members may not engage in extensive or ongoing projects, which we believe entail a deeper relationship with our clients, unless they have been specially qualified in GLG Member Programs.
Employees of companies, other than from senior management, must obtain the written consent of their employers to participate in GLG Member Programs. This safeguard provides a tier of Network Membership - GLG Member Programs - for client requests to engage an expert for in-depth and ongoing consulting work; for any in-person meetings; or to provide any written reports.
Using Technology to Manage Conflicts
GLG has developed powerful technologies to identify and track potential conflicts. These systems include:
- GLG's contract management systems track the version and exact date of the Network Member's completion of the Network Member Tutorial and agreement to the Terms and Conditions and systematically enforce annual recertification and upgrades. The precision of this tracking system has allowed GLG to ensure that only experts who have signed a recent, updated contract may participate in projects with GLG clients. This system also enables GLG to continually upgrade the agreement, based on feedback and requests from clients, Network Members, and their respective firms and industry groups.
- Network Members are systematically reminded of GLG's compliance rules.
- An Institutional Expert Registry enables institutions to register guidelines on the ability of their employees to participate in consulting projects. Employers may specify guidelines by individual, group, product, client type or subject. GLG has proactively reached out to thousands of employers to ask if they have rules for employee consulting. GLG's proprietary systems currently disqualify any expert profiled as employed at the thousands of entities with such prohibitions in GLG's Expert Registry from participating in projects with GLG clients.
- A Disclosure Management System, based on the technologies and taxonomies that drive GLG's knowledge management efforts, stores and organizes information provided by Network Members about their respective abilities to consult on specific topics. GLG tracks disclosed conflicts to help prevent current and future invitations on the potentially restricted subjects. The Disclosure Management System uses a proprietary subject hierarchy of over 400,000 nodes to store and manage GLG's understanding of Network Member conflicts and expertise.
- Web-based tools empower clients to monitor and control interactions between the client's staff and Network Members and to automate the client's own compliance rules. Using the Research Management Platform, GLG clients can customize screening rules, set workflow rules and approval requirements and add customized notifications to experts and to members of their own staff.
