Data and analytics company LexisNexis, a division of RELX, has embraced the rule of law as central to its corporate mission. According to its website, its business “is driven by the mission to advance the rule of law around the world, which is vital for building peace and prosperity in society.” In 2019, the company established the LexisNexis Rule of Law Foundation to coordinate its rule of law work. Leading these efforts has been Ian McDougall, president of the LexisNexis Rule of Law Foundation and former LexisNexis general counsel, who is also a member of the World Justice Project (WJP) Rule of Law Leadership Council. WJP Executive Director Elizabeth Andersen caught up with Ian recently to learn more about LexisNexis’s commitment to the rule of law. An edited transcript of their conversation follows.
Elizabeth Andersen: Tell me the origin story of the LexisNexis Rule of Law Foundation. How did LexisNexis come to prioritize the rule of law?
Ian McDougall: When LexisNexis Chief Executive Officer Mike Walsh appointed me as general counsel twelve years ago, he asked me to think about the company’s good work on various volunteer projects in over one hundred countries and consider how that work could be organized under a coherent theme that the company could unite behind. It seemed to me that all of these projects were related in one way or another to the rule of law, so that became our theme.
As a first step, we, like WJP, had to decide what we mean by the rule of law. Our approach was to undertake historical research about how this idea had developed in different parts of the world. We wanted to get the world—through history—to tell us what the rule of law meant, rather than the other way around. The common themes that emerged make up the four pillars of the rule of law that we use: equality before the law, an independent judiciary, access to the law, and access to remedy.
We were careful to be as nonpolitical as possible and to avoid difficult language and topics, so we talk about access to remedy, rather than “justice,” because we are avoiding very interesting but sometimes philosophical debates that can sidetrack us. We don’t include, for example, “human rights” or “democracy” in our definition, because these are, as far as we are concerned, outcomes that depend on the rule of law as we define it. This approach means that I can go to meetings with Chinese officials and to meetings with U.S. senators and make exactly the same speech. This nonpolitical approach is also important to making this something that the business community can get behind.
You’ve been a real advocate for businesses taking up the rule of law cause. How do you make the case?
Well, you have to talk to business in the language of business. That means saying or proving things like: When the rule of law is stronger, per capita GDP is stronger. You have a bigger marketplace and more opportunity to sell your goods. When the rule of law is stronger, you can protect the investment that you’re making in that country.
Using these as avenues to interest the business community—to be able to say quite openly, this is not only the right thing to do, but it’s in your naked self-interest to do it right. You want to operate in this country; how do you do that when there is no facility to protect your investment or protect your intellectual property or do any of these basic things that mean that you have half a chance of getting a return on your investment? The answer is you need to get involved with us in advancing the rule of law, because that gives you the foundation for business investment.
How does LexisNexis advance the rule of law, and what do you recommend to other businesses interested in advancing this cause?
We do it by a very simple strategy of two points. First, deploy your core skills. In other words, take what you’re already good at and deploy that capacity to advance one or more of the four pillars of the rule of law. Second, work with partners who can bring something to the table. That’s where the Foundation comes in. It has served as a focal point for us to organize our capacity to contribute to the rule of law and as a vehicle for building key partnerships.
And how does that work in practice? Give us some concrete examples of assets that LexisNexis has deployed in this work.
We are a legal publisher, so quite naturally, we have helped countries to create the consolidated laws of their country. Sometimes in post-conflict situations, a country’s been destroyed, and there is hardly any record of what laws were in place before. We’ve had editorial teams go to the country, do research, see what exists, see where the gaps are, and then help the country to draft laws that fill the gaps in what they have or don’t have. They produce a consolidated set of laws.
We have also done judge training, helping judges understand how to operate in a rule of law context, to be thinking about the underlying principles they ought to be advancing in their judgments.
An important thing for the legal community is not to think too narrowly about the skill sets you have. Whenever you talk to a group of lawyers, the first thing they talk about is pro bono legal advice. There is so much more that can be done by people with legal education than that, important though it is. I’ve mentioned editorial work and teaching, there’s also project management—these kinds of skills can be deployed. When I say core skills, I don’t want people to think too narrowly, that a lawyer’s only core skill is to give free legal advice. It’s much, much wider than that; a huge range of activity can be done.
As an example, LexisNexis has produced a coloring book for young children, explaining the “ABCs” of the rule of law. Each page of the coloring book has a little statement about the importance of the rule of law that relates to the picture to be colored. We’ve just received a request for ten thousand of these coloring books to be distributed to schools in Uganda. It’s an example of someone at LexisNexis thinking in a legal frame of mind but deploying another skill that they had—in this case, artistic ability.
I helped found the UN Committee on Business for the Rule of Law. One of the things we created was a toolkit with some examples of what companies have done. There was a motorbike company, for example. How can a motorbike company advance the rule of law? They found a project where pro bono legal advice was being given, but it was hard for their partners to reach difficult-to-get-to places. They donated their motorbikes to enable lawyers to get to remote villages to deliver legal advice. There are all kinds of ways that businesses can think about contributing.
And is it only the lawyers at LexisNexis, or are others in the business active in this work?
Everyone can get involved. We have something called a project board. When a rule of law idea comes up, they post to the project board what jobs they need and appeal for people to join the project and volunteer their time. It’s important to remember that when we’re talking about the core skills of an especially large organization, that involves a large range: accounting, project management, and management generally, to name just a few.
What are the potential pitfalls that a business might contemplate if they were to follow your lead, and how would you recommend navigating them?
If you want to advance the rule of law around the world, you may have to try to engage with places that most people are trying to avoid. You’re trying to do things that are basically nation building, and sometimes you are going to have to speak to people who are not nice. It sounds like a risky thing to do, until you get a reputation that helps people understand what you’re doing. That’s the advantage of working through an organization like the LexisNexis Rule of Law Foundation, because then the motivations behind what you’re doing become obvious.
What do you say to the business leader who is concerned that engaging on rule of law issues might harm their business relations, cause political risk, or otherwise disadvantage them?
We have to remember that there are many places around the world where it is just impractical for an individual, whether that be an individual company or an individual person, to take action. That’s why you have to work in a collective way, through organizations or associations. By working through an organization, you can start to make this an issue. Once it becomes an issue, then people start talking about it. Once people start talking about it, then you’re starting to move opinion and you’re starting to create the environment for action.
Is there a project of the foundation of which you are most proud?
One that we often cite is the Eyewitness to Atrocities app, which is a collaboration with the International Bar Association (IBA). The International Criminal Court noted that there are many bits of video information around the world online that show bad things happening that they can’t use as evidence because they’re not verified. The app was created to location stamp, time stamp, and encrypt video information about war crimes and crimes against humanity so that it would be admissible to a court. When the user does that, it gets sent to a Lexis server like a secure vault, which is then held for review by an appointed panel of IBA human rights lawyers. If the user’s phone happened to be confiscated, there’s no data left on the phone that the eyewitness app was ever used.
It became a flagship for us because very soon after it was launched, it was used in support of successful International Criminal Court prosecutions of two people from the Democratic Republic of the Congo for crimes against humanity and war crimes. We know it works.
That is an example of us advancing one of the four pillars of the rule of law (access to remedy, in this particular case), deploying our core skills (in this case, technology), and working with a partner (the IBA), in order to deliver a successful rule of law project.
How has the rule of law work benefited your company?
Recruitment, retention, and morale go through the roof when people are a part of these projects. People want to join the company because it has this mission at its core. We know of technologists who could join the other big technology companies and choose to join us because they want to be involved in things like this. Whenever we do employee surveys and test the temperature of employee morale, top of the list every time is the rule of law stuff.
When I was recruiting lawyers to my legal team fifteen years ago, the questions they would ask at the end of the interview were: Is there a bonus? How much holiday do I get, and does this come with a health scheme or pension? Now the question I get asked is how to get involved in rule of law projects. It’s totally transformed the conversation in recruitment.
One last question: Is there anything about the way in which this work has played out that has surprised you?
I think one surprise for me has been the degree of enthusiasm that this work generates. It’s tremendous to see the impact that it has had on the people involved in the projects. It really is wonderful to see, and also it’s given us as the company the opportunity to be involved in some amazing experiences.
“Tapping Core Business Skills to Advance the Rule of Law: A Conversation with LexisNexis Rule of Law Foundation President Ian McDougall” is part of a series on the rule of law and its importance for business lawyers created by the American Bar Association Business Law Section’s Rule of Law Working Group. Read more articles in the series.