Authors Parker and Rotunda both write their articles with the intent to identify methods which ensure the preservation of legal ethics and encourage professional standards in large law firms. While both authors share a great degree of commonality on most key points, the differ quite significantly in two major areas, the reasons why lawyers make ethical pitfalls and possible methods to achieve said goal. There is a strong theme of workplace culture being inextricably woven together with professional ethics present in both articles in addition to an emphasis on organisational structures, however Parker and Rotunda approach these concepts from different angles.
Parker argues that the primary cause of ethical violations in larger law firms is the pressure associated with identifying and avoiding the near limitless list of possible ethical misconduct scenarios, which results in lawyers becoming more willing to take shortcuts which fringe on ethical violations. Rotunda however, develops this concept of workplace anonymity which can be observed in larger law firms. He argues that in a law firm composed of lawyers numbering in the upper-hundreds across different continents, maintaining a high degree of ethical accountability is nigh impossible and suggests that the moral implications of being caught out on ethical violations is of less concern considering the personal and professional distance between a lawyer and their co-workers. Parker’s reasoning seems to be more applicable to lawyers in the early stages of their careers as opposed to Rotunda who takes a more holistic approach within his argument. Parker’s argument is less strong here as although ethical pressures could certainly result in lawyers attempting to take advantage of short...
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...here are numerous differences surrounding the development and practice of legal and personal ethical obligations. When it comes to these disagreeable points, Rotunda’s article definitely appears more convincing and rational considering his solid development of the notion of workplace anonymity which serves as the base of his arguments. Parker’s approach ultimately boils down to simple workplace pressures induced by ethical stress, although certainly both makes sense on a logical level. In regards to preventative measures, Rotunda’s approaches attempt to protect the law firm more than Parker’s measures which could be seen as a somewhat lofty attempt to turn ethical violations into unavoidable mistakes for early career lawyers. Neither author seems to be willing to consider alternate punishments which could be seen as being soft on those who commit ethical violations.
Freedman, Monroe H., and Abbe Smith. Understanding Lawyers' Ethics. New Providence, NJ: LexisNexis, 2010. Print.
Criticisms of lawyers are the topic in Richard A. Wasserstrom's article "Lawyers as Professionals: Some Moral Issues." Wasserstrom broke this topic into two main areas of discussion. The first suggests that lawyers operate with essentially no regard for any negative impact of their efforts on the world at large. Analysis of the relationship that exists between the lawyer and their client was the second topic of discussion. "Here the charge is that it is the lawyer-client relationship which is morally objectionable because it is a relationship which the lawyer dominates and in which the lawyer typically, and perhaps inevitably, treats the client in both an impersonal and a paternalistic fashion."
Throughout your life, you’ll face tough decisions where you'll have to decide possibly against your ethical beliefs. Ethics don’t necessarily always have to involve law abiding. It’s rather about trusting your moral path and doing the right thing. Dori Meinert is the author of “Creating an Ethical Workplace” she explains the thought behind the never black or white decision making when it comes to businesses. Can businesses truly trust those individuals hired to steer their companies? It was mentioned that last year 41 percent of U.S. workers said they observed unethical or illegal misconduct on the job, according to the Ethics Resource Center's 2013 National Business Ethics Survey. Meinert’s article was not only eye-opening but very truthful since we’ve all been faced or witnessed unethical decision making. Once employees see individuals breaking the rules and regulations others will then think it's okay, which could result in employees leaving or major hoops for companies to jump through. When we tolerate misconduct we lower productivity and diminish the reputation of a company. Meinert mentioned that if
Pfeiffer, R., & Forsberg, R. (2005). Ethics on the job: cases and strategies (3rd ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson/Wadsworth.
Benevolence instructs the accountant to serve in the best interest of the public. It is described as the extent to which a trusty will want to do good to the trustor aside from an egocentric profit motive (Power Point Presentation 7, n.d.). From a utilitarian perspective, some actions may not be deemed worth the effort when there is a lack of profit to be obtained from the action. The AICPA Code of Professional Conduct is set up to establish professional norms and standards that discourages this type of behavior.
“Most people in the U.S. want to do the right thing, and they want others to do the right thing. Thus, reputation and trust are important to pretty much everyone individuals and organizations. However, individuals do have different values, attributes, and priorities that guide their decisions and behavior. Taken to an extreme, almost any personal value, attribute, or priority can “cause” an ethical breach (e.g. risk taking, love of money or sta...
14). Ethical dilemmas arise in peoples jobs all the time and you can never plan for when one will happen. However, by going through ethical training and learning more about ethics, it may help you whenever an ethical dilemma arises. While ethical issues are, according to Pollock (2012), “topics for which one might have an opinion but rarely a chance to take a stand that has much impact” (p. 14). Paralegals also have their limitations on what they’re allowed to do and what they’re allowed to say. We’re here to talk about things paralegals can’t legally do and what happens when an ethical dilemma arises in the workplace. First off, paralegals cannot set legal fees, undertake representation, they cannot give legal advice, and they cannot represent a client in court, but besides that the paralegals can assist with all the things that the attorney does (Canaday, n.d., p. 1). Paralegals can’t do these things because they are not lawyers and it’s not their job to do
Ethical behavior is behavior that a person considers to be appropriate. A person’s moral principals are shaped from birth, and developed overtime throughout the person’s life. There are many factors that can influence what a person believes whats is right, or what is wrong. Some factors are a person’s family, religious beliefs, culture, and experiences. In business it is of great importance for an employee to understand how to act ethically to prevent a company from being sued, and receiving criticism from the public while bringing in profits for the company. (Mallor, Barnes, Bowers, & Langvardt, 2010) Business ethics is when ethical behavior is applied in an business environment, or by a business. There are many situations that can arise in which a person is experiencing an ethical dilemma. They have to choose between standing by their own personal ethical standards or to comply with their companies ethical standards. In some instances some have to choose whether to serve their own personal interests, or the interest of the company. In this essay I will be examining the financial events surrounding Bernie Madoff, and the events surrounding Enron.
When working within any professional body, an individual will be subjected to circumstances in which personal ethics will come into play. The Accounting profession is no different as ethical questions arise as part of any working day and can effect how an individual or the company conducts business. These questions can vary greatly in practice from selection of new customers to the rates at which those clients are going to be charged. These ethical questions are raised regularly within the workplace and each employee will react to them differently. The varying reactions will depend on the morality of each individual, or each employees own ‘ethics’. As each employee has their own set of values companies must be alert to the fact that some of their employees may have more ‘flexible’ morals than others. This ‘flexible’ morality can lead to corruption and manipulation within the workplace and can give companies serious problems. As a result of this, all of the main professional accounting bodies have begun to re-introduce mandatory courses teaching ethics to their employees. As well as this, ‘A Guide to professional ethics’ was published which contains a number of different principles in order to govern the behaviour of accountants and also to identify and reduce the greatest areas of risk with respect to unethical behaviour.
Professional standards are defined as the legal or ethical duty of a professional in a particular field to exercise the level of diligence, skill, and care as stipulated in the code of practice. Normally, an individual is expected to be consistent with what other professionals in the practice are engaging in to comply with the expectation of the profession. On the other hand, institutional ethics is defined as the application, evaluation and articulation of values and moral principles that are related to the organization’s procedures, practices, and policies (Holloway & Wheeler, 2013). Perhaps, in the case studies below, health care institutions and professionals are involved thus prompting the need to examine their
I discovered how sticking to one’s morals should be the topmost priority for everyone involved in business, whether personal or professional. Regardless of what the consequences may be, the intensity of the problem, and the complexities it may bring, sacrificing one’s integrity should never be an option, as integrity goes hand-in-hand with the morals of an individual (Duggan & Woodhouse, 2011). They further go on to say that having individuals take part in building a code of ethics that supports employee integrity, they will act ethically. Also, I believe that companies should place more emphasis on the moral behavior of their employees, and clear-cut policies should be set regarding such ethical situations. Furthermore, I realized how serving justice while making decisions really helps in the long run, and that opting to go for the ideal rather than they deserved is not always the best option, and could hurt a company in more than one
Romal, Jane B., and Hibschweiler, Arlene M. "Improving Professionals Ethics: Steps for Implementing Change." The CPA Journal (2004). Retrieved on 16 September 2006 .
A company's code of ethics is very important to establishing the expectations and quality of its brand. The code of ethics are concrete expectations for employee behavior, accountability and communicates the ethical policy of a company to its partners and clients. A good business practice is to have sound ethics. Having good ethical practice is knowing the difference between right and wrong and choosing what the right thing is. Though good ethical behavior is something that should be done automatically, a company needs to have a set of rules in place that holds everyone accountable. Over the last twenty years, the country has been bombarded with company scandals and unethical behavior; though morally wrong, the punishment does not fit the crime. The punishments have been overkill. A murderer, rapist, or child molester commits violent crimes and potentially is out of jail in 10 - 20 years. The CEO’s that commit white collar crime receive 25 years to life; this paper will discuss how this punishment for committing nonviolent crimes, such as breaching a company’s code of ethics, are disproportionate to violent crimes that plague the country today.
When I think of ethics, I think of the angel on my left shoulder telling me to do the “right” thing, and the devil on my right, tempting me to join the dark side. This scenario deals with what is “right” or what is “wrong” and where my morals will lie in the end. But who is to say what is right and wrong? Ethics is such a trivial word because every person, company, and culture has a different idea of what is considered ethical or what is considered unethical. Throughout this paper, I will address my personal view on ethics, and how I believe it effects the workplace and today’s society.
Many organization as well as professionals and associations are being gaining in accept code of ethics to understand the ethical attitude of members and employees in their everyday action. In today world ethics accept in all field to overcome the problems and to solve the situations in legal way.