It’s not about ignorance of the law but about demonstrating you made a “good faith” effort to comply and oops, it turns out you landed on the wrong decision. Yo

It’s not about ignorance of the law but about demonstrating you made a “good faith” effort to comply and oops, it turns out you landed on the wrong decision. You got some bad advice, but now you know! Won’t happen again, sorry about that! Depending on how much of a grey area you’re operating in the law firm may or may not issue an opinion letter. So if you’re really pushing the boundary of what is reasonable to the point outside counsel won’t put it in writing you know you’re taking a pretty aggressive legal position. Some of the big law firms/practice groups have a reputation for being willing to be more aggressive in their written opinions than others. Large multinational companies often have several big law firms on retainer and their in house legal team will know who to go to for more conservative legal advice and who to go to for cover on a risky legal position. So I’ve heard, at least, I definitely would never participate in such ethically dubious behavior.