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Business Organizations Law

2011

Professional responsibility

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Law

Organizational Management Of Conflicting Professional Identities, Cassandra Burke Robertson Jan 2011

Organizational Management Of Conflicting Professional Identities, Cassandra Burke Robertson

Faculty Publications

Professionals in the military have suffered criticism for their failure to counter military excess in the so-called "War on Terror" - especially in the area of torture and maltreatment of detainees. Much of the criticism leveled against such professionals has assumed that they were bad actors who were making a conscious choice to avoid the strictures of their code of ethics. This Article counters that narrative by applying identity theory to offer a more situations explanation. It argues that some of these professional failures arise from the cognitive incentives faced by individuals in an organization that rewards organizational deference over …


The Moral Responsibility Of The Corporate Lawyer, Judith A. Mcmorrow, Luke M. Scheuer Dec 2010

The Moral Responsibility Of The Corporate Lawyer, Judith A. Mcmorrow, Luke M. Scheuer

Luke M Scheuer

Lawyers traditionally claim that they are not morally accountable for the goals or activities of their clients that are within the bounds of the law. This essay explores this concept of non-accountability in the context of corporate transactional representation. We argue that corporate lawyers, whose practice is forward looking, undertaken on behalf of corporate clients who have legally impaired ability to engage in independent moral reasoning, and who function in a world of relatively minimal legal oversight (i.e. whose work is furthest from the model of the adversary system) cannot persuasively claim that they are not morally responsible for the …