ABSTRACT
Law practice is both a profession and a business. As a professional, the lawyer uses their knowledge and skills pursuant to the standards of ethics and applies their values to affect outcomes for their clients. The legal professional can expect that clients and employers, eager to obtain desirable personal and/or economic outcomes, will often seek to influence the conduct of the lawyer to favor business or professional outcomes over values and/or ethical considerations. The dynamics of employment for in-house counsel and junior lawyers in a law firm or legal organization may provide the lawyer with limited recourse in these circumstances. When a legal professional is called upon to engage in unethical conduct, clients and employers will grudgingly accept that the external rules that could lead to sanctions affecting both the lawyer and the client or employer provide sufficient reason for the lawyer to refuse to cross ethical “red lines.”.
