Legal ethics vs. business ethics
Legal ethics and business ethics are alike in that they dictate, either by law or general standard, what is acceptable and what is not. They are different in that legal ethics are usually ensconced in laws and other enforceable standards whereas business ethics are not always a matter of law. For example, a handshake deal may or may not be enforceable in court (legal standards) but business ethics dictate that someone should follow through on what they promise. However, they are alike, regardless of the alw, in that people that violate them tend to be ostracized and labeled as unethical. Sometimes, it is possible to follow both business and legal ethics and still run afoul of other standards. For example, not giving a dollar to a bum on the street may not violate business or legal ethics but people can still view it poorly.
Topic 2: Rules…...
This can often result out of severe depression, making clients unresponsive and non-committal to any course of legal action. This requires the lawyer to determine at what point a client is simply exercising their basic human (and legally protected) freedom to defend themselves how they wish, and when they have crossed the line into being unable to defend themselves properly. An error in judgment here can cause a massive miscarriage in the lawyer's duties to the client, and/or a greatly diminished quality of justice in the particular instance. Providing a fully zealous defense might, in some very limited cases, not be in the client's best interests.
There is one over-riding ethical concern in the practice of criminal defense that is most prevalent in the minds of the public and of new practitioners, and though the frequency of this worry diminishes over time it remains very real. This is, of course,…...
mlaReference
Masschusetts Rules of Professional Conduct. Accessed 19 July 2009. http://www.mass.gov/obcbbo/rpcnet.htm
Confidentiality and Law: Expectations of Trust in Legal Ethics
There is a significant and critical difference between what one considers professional ethics and one's personal morality. Professional ethical rules may have developed under the wider umbrella of ethical principles, but they do not necessarily reflect what people would consider to be moral behavior. In fact, in some instances, acting in a manner that is considered professionally ethical may require people to engage in behavior that they consider to be immoral based on their own personal religious standards. This can be particularly true in the legal field, where ethical obligations to clients may come in direct conflict with a person's own religiously-inspired moral obligations. However, it is important to realize that ethical rules have developed alongside religious and moral rules, so that, while legal ethics may not mirror religious morals, they will reflect the socio-cultural background in which they developed. In the…...
mlaReferences
American Bar Association. (2014). Rule 1.6: Confidentiality of information. Retrieved April
Griffin, L. (1998). The relevance of religion to a lawyer's work: Legal ethics. Retrieved April
29, 2014 from Fordham Law Review website: http://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3437&context=flr
Paralegal Ethics
Paralegals play a unique role in helping to prepare a legal team for the challenges they will face with any kind of litigation. This means that they must embrace a certain amount of ethics to ensure they are supporting the client and everyone they are working with. As far as Lucy and her conflicts surrounding the Phiox case are concerned. These are examples of issues which can arise. To fully understand what is taking place requires carefully examining the different ethical challenges from: contrasting points-of-view and how the judge should rule. Together, these elements will highlight the role of potential conflicts and their impact on the outcome of the case. (Kaufmann, 2013)
What are Lucy's ethical issues?
Lucy's ethical issues are that she is tied directly to both sides, from her work on it as a paralegal for ABC and XYZ. This is problematic, as she has access to critical information…...
mlaReferences
Kaufmann, K. (2013). Legal Ethics. Albany, NY: Delmar.
Legal Ethics Surrounding the Love Canal Tragedy
Love Canal Law/Ethics
In 1979, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) filed a lawsuit against Hooker Chemical Company and its parent corporation, Occidental Petroleum (EPA, 1979). The Department of Justice (DOJ), acting on behalf of the EPA, charged these corporations with creating an imminent and substantial danger to health and the environment, by violating the esource Conservation and ecovery Act, Clean Water Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, efuse Act, and the common law of nuisance. In 1995, 16 years after the suit was filed, Occidental agreed to pay the requested amount for cleanup and resident relocation costs (DOJ, 1995).
Congress reacted to the environmental and health disaster by enacting Superfund legislation, which contained a provision making polluters retroactively liable. However, the concept of retroactive liability has been a source of controversy for legal and ethical reasons. This essay will examine the legal/ethical issues of responsible party…...
mlaReferences
DOJ (U.S. Department of Justice). (1995). Occidental to pay $129 million in Love Canal settlement. Justice.gov. Retrieved 16 Nov. 2012 from http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/Pre_96/December95/638.txt.html.
EPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency). (1979). U.S. sues Hooker Chemical at Niagara Falls, New York. EPA.gov. Retrieved 16 Nov. 2012 from http://www.epa.gov/history/topics/lovecanal/02.html .
Lercher, Aaron. (2004). Is anyone to blame for pollution? Environmental Ethics, 26, 403-410.
Regional Institute. (2008). Policy Brief: Thirty years from Love Canal. Institute.Buffalo.edu. Retrieved 16 Nov. 2012 from http://regional-institute.buffalo.edu/Includes/UserDownloads/PolicyBrief_LoveCanal_Aug08.pdf.
Legal Ethics
• Are there situations in which a company, for the common good, must give up the economic advantage accorded by intellectual property laws?
During a crisis situation, the common good can trump an intellectual property law. The threat of anthrax was at an all-time high, and though Bayer was producing as much as it could, it could not meet the demand and thus the price for their drug was artificially inflated. Under such circumstances, with a threat that impacts national security, I believe that the common good should come before intellectual property law.
• Should Bayer have followed its own credo more than it seemingly did?
Yes, of course. Although there goal is to maximize profit, it also needs to be a sustainable company. With its past history, sharing its intellectual property in a time of crisis could offer the company much needed intangible assets. The company could have worked with outside…...
Therefore, the best way to help employees act ethically is to view the workplace and daily operations as a training ground.
In your estimation why is there a growing need for organizational ethics programs? What are the factors contributing to ethical problems in the global corporate world? What are possible solutions?
The need for organizational ethics program is growing for several reasons. First, organizational ethics have become crucial for companies to avoid legal and financial distress. Second, ethics help businesses run smoothly and well, attracting the best caliber of employee. Ethics programs are important especially in large organizations with a diverse staff. Global and multinational companies will be working with people from around the world, who operate in unique ethical environments. Ethics programs help multinational companies create standards for employees that will help avoid conundrums and miscommunication. Ethics programs bring all employees together on the same page and therefore become integral…...
Ethics and the Internet
As the computer has evolved in the modern world, so the potential for communication has also increased. The computer, and the development of the Internet, has meant that human society has become more connected than ever before and the barriers between nations and people around the globe have been broken down. While this is a positive development in many ways, the growth of the Internet has also meant that there has been an increase in a wide range of new problems. One of these is the issue of ethics. "Just as ethics evolve as human societies grow and change, so similar ethical questions are raised during the evolution of this global electronic community." (Ethics on the Web)
The more that technology for communication and open publication of information advances, the more questions are raised about issues relating to moral codes of behavior and problems about what is right…...
mlaBibliography
Ethics. The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. March 11, 2005. http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/e/ethics.htm
Ethics on the Web. 1995, Accessed March 11, 2005, http://www.echonyc.com/~ysue/ethics.html
INTERNET ETHICS: OXYMORON OR ORTHODOXY? March 12, 2005.
Ethics Leadership Analysis
One of the biggest advantages of globalization is that many different companies are able to receive cheap labor to produce a wide variety of products that are sold at numerous retail stores in the United States. However, an ugly facet to what has been happening, is that there are a number of different sweat shops in a host of regions around the world and in some cases within the U.S. itself. Evidence of this can be seen with an investigation that was conducted by the Department of Labor. They found that over half of the companies they were looking at, were breaking numerous labor laws by operating 10,000 of these kinds of facilities illegally inside the nation. At the same time, they discovered that a variety of governments around the world were encouraging these kinds of factories. (Elliot, 2009)
In the case of Kathie Lee Gifford, her clothing line…...
mlaBibliography
Youth and Labor. (2011). Department of Labor. Retrieved from: http://www.dol.gov/dol/topic/youthlabor/
Elliot, J. (2009). Santa's Little Sweat Shop. Albimonitor. Retrieved from: http://www.albionmonitor.com/sweatshop/ss-intro.html
Farrell, O. (2009). Business Ethics. Mason, OH: South Western.
National Labor Committee. (2000). Children Found Sewing Clothes for Wal Mart. Harvard Law School. Retrieved from: http://www.law.harvard.edu/programs/lwp/NLC_childlabor.html
Ethics, Morality, Values, And Beliefs
According to "the ethics site," an Internet resource for college instructors regarding the teaching of different ethical systems, ethics may be defined as "the explicit, philosophical reflection on moral beliefs and practices. The difference between ethics and morality is similar to the difference between musicology and music. Ethics is a conscious stepping back and reflecting on morality, just as musicology is a conscious reflection on music." ("Glossary," The Ethics Site, 2005) In other words, ethics is the philosophy of what is right and wrong, while morality is the practice of ethics, or virtue in action.
The analogy between a musician and a musicologist proposed by the positioning of ethics vs. morality is interesting, because one might understand music very well, and be able to explain its theory and teaching as a musicologist. However, a great musicologist might be only a middling musician. In contrast, there are sixteen-year-olds…...
mlaWork Cited
"Glossary." The Ethics Site. 2005. [11 Feb 2005]http://ethics.acusd.edu/LMH/E2/Glossary.html.
The ethics of the design research demands that 'the research is valid and that threats to validity have been taken into account', and reporting has been accurate and sufficient details have been listed and supplemented for the clarity and appropriate interpretation of the research content, furthermore 'in qualitative research, it is important to be particularly careful about how to choose direct quotations from the data in the research, and ensure that they are representative' (Ian, 2003).
Many professional associations, government agencies, and universities have developed, adopted and practiced specific codes, rules, and policies relating to research ethics i.e. East Carolina University, National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Food and Drug Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture have developed their own ethical rules related to the design research. Some of the influential ethical policies on design research includes, 'the Uniform equirements (International Committee of…...
mlaReferences
David B. Resnik. What is Ethics in Research & Why is it Important? National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. 2006. Referred from www.niehs.nih.gov/research/resources
Deni Elliott, Judy E. Stern. Research Ethics: A Reader. 1997. UPNE Publication. pp. 216
Ian Gregory. Ethics in Research. Continuum International Publishing Group. 2003. pp. 93
Helen Simons, Robin Usher. Situated Ethics in Educational Research. Routledge. 2000. pp. 84
The utilitarian perspective focuses on the broad impacts of the actions, rather than just how the actions affect specific individuals (Andre & Velasquez, 2010). From the utilitarian perspective, genetic testing has the potential to do great harm to many, and to benefit many. The utilitarian arithmetic points out that the benefits to the companies in utilizing genetic testing is that profits increase. The argument can also be made that wealthier companies provide more jobs and wealthier insurance companies are better able to pay out to those who do receive payments. The counter to the former point is that this employment is theoretical -- not only may it not occur, but it may not occur in the United States. The counter to the latter is that insurance is largely price inelastic, so there is no improvement in coverage likely from handing more profits to insurance companies.
On the harm side, many…...
mlaWorks Cited:
Andre, C. & Velasquez, M. (2010). Calculating consequences: The utilitarian approach to ethics. Markkula Center for Applied Ethics. Retrieved February 20, 2011 from http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/iie/v2n1/calculating.html
Cline, a. (2011). Deontology and ethics: What is deontology, deontological ethics? About.com. Retrieved February 20, 2011 from http://atheism.about.com/od/ethicalsystems/a/Deontological.htm
Miller, P. (2007). Genetic testing and the future of disability insurance: Thinking about discrimination in the genetic age. The Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics. Vol. 35 (2) 47-52.
Schafer, S. (2001). Railroad agrees to stop gene-testing workers. Washington Post. In possession of the author.
Ethics are often stronger than the laws of the land. Laws are cobbled together by special interests and have little to do with right and wrong, or personal ethical codes. For most people, their own personal codes of ethics will be stronger than the laws. People are much less likely to violate their own personal ethical codes than the laws.
Morals are codes of conduct put forward by a society, often within the context of a cultural or social group. Ethics are, following the Aristotelian tradition, a general guide to behavior that an individual adopts as his own guide to life (Gert, 2011). The relationship between the two is self-evident: while ethics are individual they are often strongly influenced by society's moral context.
Kohlberg (1971) outlined morals are being pre-conventional, conventional and post-conventional. Pre-conventional morals are in the obedience and punishment orientation and the self-interest orientation. Like when you learn that killing…...
mlaReferences
Anderson, K. (2009). Ethnographic research: A key to strategy. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved February 17, 2014 from http://hbr.org/2009/03/ethnographic-research-a-key-to-strategy/ar/1
Gert, B. (2011). The definition of morality. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved February 17, 2014 from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/morality-definition/
Kohlberg, L. (1971) From Is to Ought: How to Commit the Naturalistic Fallacy and Get Away with It in the Study of Moral Development. New York: Academic Press.
Friedman, M. (1971). The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits. New York Times Magazine. Retrieved February 17, 2014 from http://www.colorado.edu/studentgroups/libertarians/issues/friedman-soc-resp-business.html
Ethics Awareness Inventory
According to the Ethics Inventory, I fell into two categories: those who are obligation-oriented, and those who are results-oriented. In some ways, the ethical beliefs of these two categories are in conflict; for instance, usually people who base ethical decisions on obligation or duty are not as concerned with results as with principles. However, I scored high in the results-oriented category as well. I believe that my ability to span both categories of ethical decision making have proved beneficial for me in the past and will continue to in the future. For example, the ethics awareness inventory analysis indicated that I do not operate in terms of absolutes; I do not feel that there can be any absolute standards of right and wrong because the world is too complex. Therefore, I am more prone to being open-minded and flexible than people who do feel that there should be…...
Education on ethics must be wider compared to "moral development" in that it must tackle the broader consideration of a wide-ranging vocation, and constricted in that it must tackle problems particularly to the accounting vocation. (esearch on Accounting Ethics)
Definite duties of the accounting profession are put forth in the different code of ethics circulated by important establishments like the AICPA. The AICPA's foremost rule of professional conduct declares: In discharging their duties as professionals, associates must implement responsive professional and moral views in all their works. (Business and Accounting Ethics) the failure of auditor sovereignty infringing ule 101 of the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct was the topic of a research project using 2,000 arbitrarily chosen AICPA members in public accounting profession as a staff auditor, senior, or manager. These executives were offered with 15 roles that are an infringement of ule 101 and were directed to give their…...
mlaReferences
Accounting and Accountability: A Challenge for corporate culture. The 13th International Symposium on Ethics, Business and Society. IESE Business School, University of Navarra. Barcelona, Spain. May 7-8, 2004. Retrieved at Accessed on 25 April, 2005.http://www.iese.edu/en/files/6_6343.pdf .
Schachter, Joseph. Research on Accounting Ethics. CPA Journal. April 1999. Retrieved at Accessed on 25 April, 2005.http://www.nysscpa.org/cpajournal/1999/0499/News_Views/NV12.HTM .
Smith, Katherine T; Smith, Murphy. L. Business and Accounting Ethics. 21 June, 2003.
Retrieved at Accessed on 25 April, 2005.http://acct.tamu.edu/smith/ethics/ethics.htm.
Lawyers can ensure that ethical concerns are carefully considered and balanced when drafting legal documents by:
1. Conducting thorough research and analysis of the relevant laws and regulations to ensure compliance with ethical standards.
2. Consulting with colleagues, supervisors, or ethics committees to discuss and address any ethical concerns that may arise during the drafting process.
3. Considering the potential impact of the legal documents on all parties involved, including clients, opposing parties, and affected third parties.
4. Being transparent and honest in their communication with all parties involved, including disclosing any conflicts of interest or potential ethical issues.
5. Seeking feedback and input from....
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