The report contains the findings of a survey conducted within the second phase of the IBA initiative aimed at combating corruption in the legal community in 2024, in particular, the updates on corruption risks associated with the legal profession and the general trends and measures for countering corruption globally with a focus on the changes since the 2010 survey.

The survey was conducted in the period between November 2023 and April 2024 through questionnaires circulated to legal practitioners from different countries distributed among the six regions: Europe, Latin America, Asia Pacific, Africa, North America, the Middle East and Central Asia. In total, 1,300 responses were returned and analysed: most were received from the specialists in Europe and Latin America; Central Asia and the Middle East provided the lowest number of returns if compared to the other regions, which made the authors stress that the findings regarding that region should be interpreted with extreme caution. Most participants of the survey had a private practice or worked for a legal firm, fewer respondents held offices in other companies or in the public sector, a small number of the respondents represented the judicial system; an input was also made by those who work in research and non-governmental organisations, legal consultations and regulatory bodies.

Based on the findings of the survey, the authors draw the following conclusions:

• 45% of respondents observe an increase in levels of corruption within their jurisdiction over the last decade;
• The effectiveness of domestic anti-corruption laws and other normative legal acts has increased over the last decade according to 52% of respondents, especially in Europe (63%), Asia Pacific (57%) and Latin America (53%);
• 45% of participants of the survey believe that the obligation to adopt a compliance programme has resulted in a decrease in levels of money laundering and corruption in their respective countries;
• Almost half of respondents (49%) view corruption as a prevalent issue for the legal profession, with markedly higher levels of concern in Africa (89%), the Middle East and Central Asia (69%) and Latin America (68%);
• The factors of heightened corruption risk in the professional environment include:

1. Area of practice: notably, higher risks are related to criminal and public law, human rights, white collar/compliance and aviation;
2. Personal exposure: involvement in suspicious transactions, frequency of advice provision on international corruption;
3. Lack of anti-corruption training especially with regard to anti-money laundering and beneficial ownership transparency;
4. Location: heightened risks are associated with activities in Africa, in the Middle East and Central Asia, in Latin America and in some countries of Asia Pacific and Europe;

• A quarter of respondents (25%) in Africa, every fifth (21%) in Latin America and almost a third (30%) in the Middle East and Central Asia believe it is highly unlikely that a representative of the legal profession discloses a corruption offence to the authorised public bodies, whereas only one in ten respondents (12%) submitted this answer in Europe and North America;
• A quarter of respondents (24%) stress they have received requests to participate in the transactions that, in their view, were related to corruption; however, only 1% of those who did not report their suspicion to the law enforcement authorities continued cooperating with the clients without additional due diligence;
• Over a half of respondents (63%) insist that they have not encountered corruption risks in interacting with third parties in other jurisdictions, but almost two thirds of respondents state that they have never conducted due diligence procedures with regard to such counterparties;
• Vast majority of respondents (78%) point out that they are aware of the existing foreign anti-corruption/anti-money laundering laws of extraterritorial enforcement; the authors of the survey stress that this is a promising improvement if compared to the findings of the 2010 survey that showed that the respondents were in general unaware of the potential enforcement of the respective laws against them;
• At least two-thirds of respondents report that they have undergone anti-corruption training; even more respondents have been trained on anti-money laundering issues;
• 77% of respondents highlight that their employers have clear and specific anti-corruption policies;
• 51% of respondents say they have access to the beneficial ownership information, but only 48% of participants of the survey believe it is useful in terms of corruption prevention.