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The Porous Boundary Between Legal And Business Advice, An Empirical Approach, Amy M. Ter Haar

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis asked whether corporate lawyers in both private practice and acting as in-house counsel differed in their attitudes toward distinguishing their professional obligations concerning the provision of “business” advice. This research establishes that these two groups of lawyers differ in their attitudes toward the provision of advice in two ways. In connection with providing business advice, in-house counsel more frequently a) feel that “murky lines” exist when distinguishing between legal and business advice and, b) look to ethics codes. This research reflects at its core an unresolved boundary between legal and business advice and provides a resolution to this …