Business Law and Ethics: Ethical Conflicts, MIS, and Legal Conduct

This report delves into the ethical conflicts and turbulence within the professional lives and workplaces of lawyers, examining philosophical theories that inform professional advice and guidance in lawyer's conduct. It addresses scenarios where HR professionals face ethical dilemmas, the importance of maintaining client privacy, and avoiding conflicts of interest. The report also explores the 'Philosophy of Lawyering' at personal, practical, and institutional levels, highlighting the lawyer's commitment to resolving comprehensive issues within the legal profession. Further, it discusses MIS development and acquisition approaches used by organizations, emphasizing the essential components required for effective information delivery to decision-makers, including Information Systems, Database Management Systems, Intelligence Systems, and Research Systems, to enhance management competence and organizational functioning. Desklib provides a platform for students to access similar solved assignments and past papers.

Individual Report

Table of Contents
Discussion........................................................................................................................................3
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10
References......................................................................................................................................10

Introduction
The report will discuss about the ethical conflict and turbulence in professional careers and
workplace of lawyers; philosophical theories informing professional advice and guidance in
lawyer’s conduct; and MIS development and acquisition approaches used in acquiring relevant
systems for organizations.
Discussion
Ethical conflict and turbulence in professional careers and workplace of lawyers
The issues related to workplace ethics though appears simple, but are highly dependent on the
specifics of situations. Even the issues that are straightforward might be associated with
numerous hidden legal as well as ethical problems for the people trying to resolve them (Feffer,
2017). Making things highly complex in HR, the practitioners have distinct responsibilities along
with general responsibilities being a citizen and all of these are extremely different roles. When
an ethical issue arises in an organization, it is the responsibility of the HR professional to
understand their roles being a representative of the organization (Feffer, 2017). Being a
responsible citizen of the country, many a times it converges but it is not always the case.
The stakes associated with the ethical issues are always higher either for the organization or for
the employees as well as managers involved in the process. For instance, it might be a situation
where, HR manager had promised to keep confidential information with him/her but then it
becomes difficult for him/her to keep under certain circumstances (ABA, 2019). The HR
professionals in the organization should set boundaries regarding confidentiality and should draw
margin that what information and up to what extent could be released and what needs to be kept
confidential.

In workplace, many a times, situations of ethical dilemmas occur but in actual, there is
requirement of actual professional judgment. The lawyers have to take ethically correct decisions
on daily basis while taking decisions regarding defending or representingtheir client. The
lawyers working for large firms are required to act in an ethical manner in their daily business
practices. The code of professional ethics provides them with the guidance along with their
personal standards being followed by them. In the case of staff management, when law firms
appoint CEO without any legal background, it might pose ethical problems as they cannot
provide legal advice to others. Similarly, paralegals as well as secretaries cannot also offer lawful
suggestions, so it becomes the responsibility of the law firms to train staff not to infringe this
rule.
The legal firms must also make sure to maintain the client privacy and must not misappropriate
funds of clients. Thus, they need to be attentive of the guidelines that regulate client
confidentiality. For instance, lawyers cannot place information about the client on social
networking sites and they cannot disclose the particulars of the case to third party or also to the
family members of client without the permission from the client. In a similar manner, lawyers
cannot represent a client if they have conflict of interests with their clients(ABA, 2019). For
instance, two lawyers from a similar law firm cannot represent a client with contrasting interests.
The law firms utilize conflict checking software in order to make sure that they cannot enter into
contract with a client who has the possibility to pose a conflict of interest.
The codes of professional ethics provide detailed procedures regarding lawyers dealing with the
client funds in an appropriate manner. For instance, when client pays the lawyer or the lawyer
has the funds from the resolution for client, the lawyer cannot use this money anywhere else.
Many a times, law firms experience ethical challenges while determining the suitability of the

lawyers for a client or a case. The lawyers might have to represent a client who is guilty but they
cannot persuade clients to perjure themselves as witness (Thompson, 2019). In a similar manner,
in cases related to emotions for example, in child custody issue, the lawyers have to frequently
determine the ways through which they could advocate their clients so as to meet their individual
ethical viewpoints.
The rules related to the professional liability for their lawyers and law firms should be followed
by all associated with the organization. The rules are more important than any other duties and
responsibilities in order to be ethically correct. The lawyers breaking any of these rules and
considered to be as committing malpractice, for which, the law firm or the individual legal
representative could be prosecuted for the same(Thompson, 2019).
Philosophical theories informing professional advice and guidance in lawyer’s conduct
It is difficult to save the perception of role-differentiated ethics through criticism regarding
standard notion of legal ethics as unethical lawyering. As per Charles Fried, exploring if good
lawyer is a good person or not, agreed to the thought that effectiveprofessional lawyers are
bound to chase the benefit of their clients even if they need to utilize the law to the
discrimination of the innocent and undermine the common good. It has also been argued by Fried
that the role of lawyer as a prejudiced advocate for clients is ethically acceptable considering the
link between an individual and the legal system. All should be encouraged to follow their lawful
purposes and should have the right to act as preferred within legal bounds (Luban & Wendel,
2017). In response to Fried, another legal ethicist Wasserstrom disagreed to the point that the
concept of legal restrictions provide insufficient security against the damage caused by lawyers
to others in order to pursue the interests of their clients. Partisan duty permeates the way lawyers

construe legal boundaries pushing legal limits for their proposed reason to hold on any kind of
colorable understanding sustained by the law (Luban & Wendel, 2017).
The ‘Philosophy of Lawyering’ refers to fundamental principles used by a lawyer to manage
discretionary decisions. The philosophy of lawyering is operated at three interrelated levels i.e. at
personal, practical and institutional level. The personal level of philosophy refers to the
relationship between the professional career of lawyers and private life of lawyers (Luban &
Wendel, 2017). The fundamental issue for majority of lawyers seeks accommodation between
competing goals of professional growth as well as family life. In the process of addressing this
issue, lawyers consider the selection of type of practice such as civil or criminal; small or large
organization; and even national or international practice. In legal practice, rules of professional
conduct provide answers to the questions regarding how a lawyer should act such as a lawyer
cannot ethically prepare a will for a client on receiving a substantial bequest unless lawyer is
associated to the client. The agreements related to contingent fee must be in writing with the
clients. Similarly, many a times, lawyers have to make difficult judgments governed by general
standards in context that involves the lawyer in a personal manner (Paterson, 2016). While the
personal level of philosophy of lawyering is related to the relationship between private life of
lawyer and their professional roles, the institutional level refers to the relationship between the
private and professional life of lawyers along with comprehensive institutional issues being
experienced by them in their profession as a whole. The legal profession continues to face a
number of significant and controversial issues which include effectiveness of disciplinary
processes, adequacy of existing mechanisms for delivery of legal services, actual or perceived
decline in professionalism and relationships with other professionals through multidisciplinary

practice. The institutional level of philosophy of lawyering identifies and explains the
commitment of lawyer towards resolution of these comprehensive issues (Parker, 2010).
The traditional view of role of lawyer can be characterized as a client-centered philosophy. Two
principles had been laid down by Professor Murray Schwartz with a purpose to accurately
describe the core of client-centered lawyering. The first principle says that lawyers perform as
enthusiastic supporters in support of their clients and doall the things achievable to make the
possibility of being prevalent in litigation or to obtain the objectives of the clients in non-
litigation issues except to the level that rules of professional conduct or legal principles evidently
exclude the conduct of the lawyers (Crystal, 2012). Within this client-centered philosophy, in
case of existence of doubts regarding the propriety of an action, the lawyer could be justified in
the legal events. The clear violations of law or ethical rules such as bribing the witnesses are
forbidden. Schwartz named this idea as the Principal of Professionalism. Secondly, while acting
professionally, lawyers are neither legally nor morally responsible for their actions which is
known as the Principle of Non-accountability by Schwartz. Professor William Simon has also
referred to two principles of conduct i.e. neutrality and partisanship which forms the core of
‘Ideology of Advocacy’ which is now utilized by various writers as ‘Neutral Partisanship’
referring to the standard conception of the role of lawyers.
MIS development and acquisition approaches used in acquiring relevant systems for
organizations
Information systems are a main business asset considering the benefits provided with their
increased costs. The organizations are required to plan for long term while attaining information
systems and services supporting business proposals. After the requirement for a particular
information system arises, the system has to be attained which is usually done from the

perspective of previously existing information systems framework of the organization. The
attainment of information systems could either occupy external sourcing or depend on inner
modification. For an organization, utilizing its information services to upkeep its operations as
well as to innovate by launching new initiative, such services need to be a part of ingenious
infrastructure of core resources. Management Information Systems (MIS) refers to as the
systems that provide information to management. Such systems are functional with people,
organizations, technology and relations between people as well as organizations influencing the
organization. The proper implementation of MIS helps in achieving higher level of competence
in the management functions of the organization. MIS take advantage of the information
technology to support the managers ensuring smooth and proficient functioning of the
organization. The information gathered by such systems is organized in such an order that the
managers can easily assess the existing performance of the organization in relation to earlier
output. Some common types of MIS comprise process control systems, sales and marketing
systems, office automation systems, human resource management systems, inventory control
systems, accounting and finance systems, enterprise resource planning systems as well as
management reporting systems.
For the effective delivery of information required to decision makers, MIS require essential
components to gather, process, store as well as recover information at whatever time it is
required. In order to achieve it, these systems utilize four components, which are Information
System, Database Management System, Intelligence system and Research System. They are as
follows;
 Information System-It is a blend of software, hardware, human resources as well as
infrastructure. It assists in the collection of data stored in the MIS. The hardware

comprises computers, scanners, and printers and also network devices while the software
elements comprise the enterprise software of the organization and all other software
utilized in functioning of the network of organization. It enables the people to intermingle
with the system so that information could be composed (Britannica, 2019).
 Database Management System-It is principally made up of computer programs that
assist in storage and recovery of data and comprises the actual databases wherein, the
information is stored subsequent to its collection. Various database management systems
could be utilized in MIS, however, the appropriateness of the systems rely on the quantity
of data required to be processed and stored within the system. Small database
management systems could easily be functional on PCs while huge ones require larger
and highly complicated machines such as mainframe computers.
 Intelligence System-It is related to the processing of data that has been composed and is
presented in a manner easier to be understood. All the aspects from data processing to
displaying of the data, it is planned in a manner to provide topmost management with the
time to relax as they make efforts in taking decisions related to the company. It is also
mentioned as business intelligence which gathers knowledge and utilizes the judgment to
devise speedy solutions for future difficulties, with the matching of patterns (Martin,
2017).
 Research System-It is related to the identification of the main management difficulties in
the organization and impending with substitute decisions suitable in a particular situation.
It helps in ensuring that all the probable alternatives are analyzed and the most
appropriate decision is taken into consideration. This component of MIS makes sure that
the most appropriate decision is made even in difficult situations.

In this way, the development and acquisition of MIS is essential for the effective functioning of
the organization and it enables the progress and growth of organization with fast pace.
Conclusion
The rules and regulations related to the professional liability of lawyers and law firms should be
followed by all those associated with the organization. Various philosophical approaches inform
professional advice and guidance in lawyer’s conduct. It has also been found that the
development and acquisition of MIS is essential for the effective functioning of the organization
and it enables the progress and growth of organization with fast pace.
References
ABA, 2019. Rule 1.9: Duties to Former Clients. [Online] Available at:
https://www.americanbar.org/groups/professional_responsibility/publications/
model_rules_of_professional_conduct/rule_1_9_duties_of_former_clients/ [Accessed 07 April
2019].
Britannica, 2019. Acquiring Information Systems And Services. [Online] Available at:
https://www.britannica.com/topic/information-system/Acquiring-information-systems-and-
services [Accessed 08 April 2019].
Crystal, N.M., 2012. Developing a Philosophy of Lawyering. Notre Dame Journal of Law,
Ethics & Public Policy, 14(1), pp.75-89.
Feffer, 2017. Ethical vs. Legal Responsibilities for HR Professionals. [Online] Available at:
https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/behavioral-competencies/ethical-practice/
pages/ethical-and-legal-responsibilities-for-hr-professionals.aspx.

Luban, D. & Wendel, W.B., 2017. Philosophical Legal Ethics: An Affectionate History.
Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics, 30, pp.337-64.
Martin, 2017. Management Information Systems (MIS): Definition and How It Works. [Online]
Available at: https://www.cleverism.com/management-information-systems-mis/ [Accessed 08
April 2019].
Parker, C., 2010. Philosophical Legal Ethics: Ethics, Morals and Jurisprudence. Legal Ethics,
3(2), pp.165-208.
Paterson, A., 2016. Lawyers’ ethics and professional responsibility. Legal Ethics, 19(1), pp.177-
81.
Thompson, V., 2019. Ethical Dilemmas in Law Firms. [Online] Available at:
https://smallbusiness.chron.com/ethical-dilemmas-law-firms-61000.html [Accessed 06 April
2019].