These problems usually flow from the fact that troubling issues of professional ethics involve conflicts among 3 ideas that are central to the lawyer’s role: the lawyer as fiduciary, the lawyer as an officer of the court functioning in an adversarial system, and the lawyer as an individual w/ personal values and interests.
The Lawyer as Fiduciary
A fiduciary relationship is different from a regular business relationship. A lawyer’s contractual relationship is secondary to the duties that they owe to their clients. Fiduciary obligations that lawyers owe their clients include 3 specific duties: duty of competence, duty of loyalty, and duty of confidentiality.
The Lawyer as an Officer of the Court in an Adversarial System
An adversarial system has (1) a neutral decisionmaker, (2) competent advocates zealously presenting the positions of each of the interested parties, and (3) rules of procedure fairly designed to allow the presentation of relevant evidence to the decisionmaker.
The Lawyer as a Person with Interests
The rules contain some regulation of fee agreements and business transactions between lawyers and clients and limitations on advertising and solicitation, and prohibitions on unauthorized practice of law. However, the model rules only scratch the surface in which business considerations shape a whole range of issues of professional ethics. Professional obligations also can involve conflict concerning personal beliefs and representation.