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[textbook]Traversing the Ethical Minefield Problems, Law, and Professional Responsibility by Susan R. Martyn (z-lib.org)(1) (1)

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Chapter 9

Conflicts of Interest:

Loyalty and Independent Judgment

A. Introduction Model Rule 1.7 RLGL § 121

Chapters 9, 10, and 11 explore the fiduciary duty of loyalty, which can be traced back

several centuries in the law of agency. 1 Fiduciary obligations arise out of relationships in

which one party must share confidential information and trust and depend on another.

Loyalty imposes an obligation on lawyers to act for the benefit of clients by recognizing and

responding to influences (conflicts of interest) that can interfere with loyalty to the client’s

interest.

In what has been viewed as a classic description of the fiduciary duty of loyalty, then

Chief Judge Cardozo explained:

Many forms of conduct permissible in a workaday world for those acting at arm’s length are forbidden to those

bound by fiduciary ties. . . . Not honesty alone, but the punctilio of an honor the most sensitive, is then the

standard of behavior. 2 259

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