[tripzilch]

> "hey we can get a great business deal and corner a market by doing this, this and this - legal team: are we doing anything wrong here?"

Wrong question.

Should be: "are we doing anything illegal here?".

Just because it's legal doesn't mean it's right. That's the whole point here.

If you have a Office of Legal Compliance whose job is strictly to decide whether something is within the law or not, a corporation might easily get the idea they can get away with doing all sorts of wrongs.

Is it legal? Possibly, apparently. But should you nose through somebody's private email without their consent? Is that ever the right thing to do? I'm gonna say no, almost always. There may be a few exceptions in some specific circumstances, but that is not for the Office of Legal Compliance to determine because ethics isn't their job.

(it might be nice if it was, but it's not)