First comes the corporate scandal, then come the lawyers. To cauterise the wound, apportion blame and provide an imprimatur of rigour and independence as regulators, the media and shareholders start to apply pressure.

The demand for legal investigations when a scandal erupts – such as at PwC, WiseTech, ANZ and Mineral Resources, to name a few recent ones – is being driven higher by whistleblower reforms, changed social values and greater expectations of corporate governance.