> Ignorance of the law is never an excuse if you are found to be breaking the law.

That’s true, but ignorance of the facts often can be. “I didn’t know I was doing X” rather than “I didn’t know X was illegal”.

For C-level execs that is probably not going to work, but for people lower on the totem pole it may well give at least some relief. You might end up convicted anyway but with a more lenient sentence if the argument is considered believable.

So every dev needs to also be an expert lawyer and financier??? OK.

There are blatantly illegal things you can do in any field of work. You need to be aware of what is and isn't within the law on a loose basis yes. Even labourers on a building site have to do some training to avoid breaching health and safety legislation (or at least to minimise the companies liability when they error).

You also need to have faith in the compliance team and senior management. If your company works in legally sticky territory like crypto doubly so.

If you are in finance or law it is a good idea to know what you can go to jail for. Engineers are people and people can go to jail for breaking laws they didn’t know about.

If you work in a company where there is no one that has some idea about the laws that apply to what you do that you could check with, you would be a little concerned.

Propably not, but a solid understanding of the rules and regulations, and legal requirements, of your field and thebindustry your working in is actually a pretty good thing.

No, not every dev.

If you want to write code for a financial institution? You bet you should be expected to know what you are doing, and understand there are relevant laws, and also not violate those laws. It's not hard. I know the relevant laws to my domain of job.