Rules of ethics in legal management

Today, I remembered a professor who taught me Ethics. Before we started the class, my expectations were very different from my experience during the course. I was reading the news today and was reminded of our ethics initial project which was about corporate scandals that marked the beginning of this century, the case of "Enron" and "WorldCom". Then I remembered the final project, in which I had to choose between three movies, "Gone Baby Gone", "The Insider" and "Schindler's List" to analyze the challenges experienced by common people whose internal values ​​were contrary to what they were expected to be their actions. Sometimes, it saddens me to observe that the current news, those of five, ten, or twenty years ago, are the same, the actors may change, but not the events. We should not be surprised by the number of international and local laws, resolutions, and Ethics rules that affect legal practice and all professionals as part of the legal industry.

Ethics is the study of moral obligations and principles of a person's behaviors that may have legal implications. In business, sometimes the common good for employees, society, or the environment could be contrary to the economic interests of shareholders, so ethical conduct implies recommending corrective actions concerning the moral dilemmas of leaders.

Let us remember rules that specifically affect the management of law firms, used to minimize risks and ensure compliance. Those are the Code of Ethics of the Dominican Republic Bar Association, but more broadly, we rely on the ABA (American Bar Association) rules of professional conduct.

The professional secrecy that applies to lawyers extends to all personnel who support the lawyers in the performance of their duties. We start recalling that matters, cases, or incidents involving clients should never be discussed with family or friends. Like lawyers, administrative staff can have access to privileged information, which under no circumstances can be disclosed or used for personal benefit. Exceptions to disclosure rule are to prevent or mitigate crime or fraud, to prevent great harm or death, or comply with the court order. In any case, we must have the consentient of the client. It is important to note that the rules apply the same to potential, current, or past clients. Regarding privacy, in October 2017, ABA's ethics and professional responsibility committee published the formal opinion on the responsibilities of lawyers to mitigate the risk of an eventual security breach in the event of cyberattacks, and the steps to follow, reaffirming the duty to notify to clients in the event of a data breach.

Among the obligations of the lawyer or the law firm is that it cannot accept new clients whose interests are adverse to current clients. An attorney, who has previously represented one client, should not represent another person in the matter related to or in which the interests of that person are materially contrary to the interests of the first client.

In the course of the representation, the lawyers can receive funds for the procedures that imply payments of the obligations before the public institutions or third parties. Once the funds are received, the attorneys or administrative staff assigned for that duty, must immediately notify the client or the third party, and deliver the funds to the designatory, without delays. Law No. 155-17 against money laundering and terrorism financing includes among the obligated subjects the lawyers and creates the technical figure of a compliance officer who “must enjoy absolute independence and autonomy in the exercise of the obligations that are assigned to him, and he must be guaranteed unrestricted access to all the information he requires in compliance with them”. Therefore, when it comes to financial matters, it is also the responsibility and the obligation to know the origin of the funds or the final beneficiary of the legal services we provide.

Regarding fees, the Code of Ethics of the Dominican Bar Association recommends it to be fair, according to the importance and amount of assistance, among other things, but the norms in the US prohibit contingent fees to results, in criminal or family matters. For example, in the event of a divorce, it is prohibited to condition the fees to the value of alimony, maintenance, or property liquidation.

The participation of lawyers in professional organizations is allowed, as long as they do not participate in making decisions that would be potentially adverse to their obligations to clients.

Sometimes questions may arise as to the termination of the professional relationship if the client intends to use legal services to take any action that the lawyer may perceive as criminal or fraudulent, the short answer is: Yes, the relationship should end at the earliest possible.

Depending on the culture of the organization or law firm, the compliance manual, code of ethics the controls, reports, and the number of standards may vary. Although the rules provide guidelines regarding the scope of representation, confidentiality, conflicts, and others, leaders must model behaviors. Also reinforce it through training, individual and group workshops, presenting cases of moral dilemmas to help people identify values ​​and anti-values. Ethics training must include examples to analyze situations that are part of our everyday living, and how some decisions may affect our families, friends, colleagues, and even our competition.

In a conclusion, I would like to point out that having a code of ethics is an important part of the general compliance program in law firms. Sends clear indications internally to employees and externally to our clients. It inspires confidence, which constitutes an intangible, differentiating asset that in the long term can positively contribute to organizational sustainability.

Angelina Angelov