To reduce risk, expand your awareness of the risks and what’s happening in your jurisdiction

Bravado and confidence, admirable in some fields, can be disastrous if unchecked in high-risk professionals

In the past few months we’ve been reading about the public inquiry into Dr. Charles Smith, the Ontario pathologist whose questionable testimony led to wrongful convictions, and the financial scandal generated when French trader Jerome Kerviel evaded bank controls leading to the loss of 4.9 billion euros at Societe Generale SA.

The Dr. Smith case is particularly disturbing. Smith was a forensic child pathologist with no training in forensics - none was required or available in Canada when he rose to prominence. In frequent testimony as an expert witness, Smith, by his own admission, supported the prosecution in disregard of his obligation to provide balanced, objective testimony. Smith’s poor practices and mistakes, many of which date back to the early ’90s, resulted in wrongful imprisonment and financial and emotional devastation for several Ontario families.

Through the lens of risk management

The Smith (and Kerviel) examples illustrate how we are underestimating risk and using inadequate controls.

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