Transactional Law and Skills, Co-Sponsored by Professional Responsibility

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Business transactions are governed by legal rules designed to encourage ethical behavior. The regulation of corruption, fraud, and conflicts of interest are obvious examples, but myriad other laws aim to ensure honesty and integrity among transacting parties. Lawyers play an important role in guiding the ethical behavior of their clients by clarifying the boundaries of legal behavior or by assisting clients in navigating ethical dilemmas. Lawyers also sometimes act as “gatekeepers” who reassure the public or third parties that a client is complying with its legal and ethical obligations and sometimes as “monitors” who enter the scene after a compliance failure is manifest. In all of these roles, lawyers are governed by their own ethical obligations embodied in codes of professional responsibility. This panel will examine ethics in business transactions from various perspectives with the goal of inspiring more deliberate consideration of business ethics in law school teaching and legal scholarship.