Integrated professionalism and ethical infrastructures for managing conflicts of interest issues : a study of international law firm lawyers in Hong Kong and Singapore

Abstract

Lawyers owe a duty of undivided loyalty to their clients as part of their professionalism. Those working in international law firms do not only manage ethical issues from a personal perspective but also in an institutional practice environment. The latter has led to the emergence of ethical infrastructures within international law firms that are designed to help their lawyers to manage conflicts of interest issues.

This study examines the role of professionalism and ethical infrastructures in managing conflicts of interest by international law firm lawyers in Hong Kong and Singapore. Specifically, this study investigates three research questions. First, how do the courts and professional bodies in Hong Kong and Singapore deal with lawyers’ conflicts of interest? Second, how do international law firm lawyers in Hong Kong and Singapore interpret and apply professionalism in conflicts of interest situations? Third, how do ethical infrastructures of international law firms in Hong Kong and Singapore help their lawyers in resolving conflicts of interest issues in practice?

This study adopts a mixed-method approach combining doctrinal and empirical research methodologies to investigate the role of professionalism and ethical infrastructures in addressing international law firm lawyers’ conflicts of interest. The findings demonstrate that the understanding of professionalism by international law firm lawyers in Hong Kong and Singapore is consistent with the standards of professionalism advocated by disciplinary bodies and courts. However, the findings suggest that these lawyers’ application of professionalism in conflicts of interest situations is shaped by contextual factors brought about by their firms, clients, and society. These findings provide empirical support to the models of organisational professionalism and commercialised professionalism that are relevant to international law firms as they grow in size. More significantly, this study shows that the interactions between these contextual factors affect how international law firm lawyers in Hong Kong and Singapore respond in conflicts of interest situations, thereby demonstrating that the different models are interrelated in practice. Therefore, this thesis argues that the professionalism being practised by these lawyers in these conflict situations reflects a model of ‘integrated professionalism’. Moreover, this thesis argues that these firms’ ethical infrastructures can be hindered by their lawyers’ manipulations and abuse of the systems and processes.

This study enriches our understanding on how professionalism and ethical infrastructures impact international law firm lawyers in Hong Kong and Singapore in their management of conflicts of interest issues. The findings contribute to the academic discourse on international law firm lawyers’ ethics and provide practical insights for international law firm lawyers in Hong Kong, Singapore, and other common law jurisdictions.