Introduction
A central tenet of professional practice is that lawyers should promote the best interests of clients. One of the most basic protections, and manifestations, of loyalty to clients is the lawyer’s duty to avoid conflicts of interest.
Situations of conflict can arise between client interests and those of the lawyer or between the interests of two or more clients. Unlike rules on confidentiality, those on conflicts of interest have attracted only moderate academic criticism. Perhaps this is because unlike confidentiality, conflict rules only operate to the commercial disadvantage of lawyers. They require lawyers to forgo business rather than help them to acquire it.Conflicts of interest are not uncontroversial. It is one of the areas in which there can be very different approaches to definition, and variations in treatment, between jurisdictions. Lawyers in England and Wales have occasionally pressed to relax the scope of rules against conflicts so that they can acquire or hold on to business. This has sometimes resulted in elaborate evasions and justifications. Rules designed to maximise conveyancing business are an example of this. To the lay observer there is a clear conflict of interest, but there is no absolute prohibition on lawyers acting for both sides in conveyancing.
II.