Ethical conflicts may put junior lawyer’s health at risk

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Working for a law firm that conflicts with one's moral values could lead to “serious health problems” for junior lawyers, according to professor Stephen Mayson of UCL.

The leading legal academic stressed the importance of law firms being transparent about their position on the public interest and the how alignment of moral values between lawyers and firms was a “a key psychological issue for how comfortable or not you are in a firm”.

Mayson added: “If you’re a junior lawyer with a sense of professional identity that doesn’t sit easily with what is happening in a firm – let alone the profession – you need to be able to understand why that lack of alignment exists.”

The professor identified several reasons for the disconnect, including a lawyer’s failure to understand the law firm’s position, a firm’s failure to consider the lawyer's perspective or a deliberate choice by the firm to adopt a differing stance, which is often influenced by economic or market priorities.

When asked about law firms representing fossil fuel companies at a webinar hosted by UCL Centre for Ethics and Law, Mayson stated that the “real problem” lies in lawyers undertaking work that is seen as “reprehensible” by the wider public, rather than illegal. However, the professor cautioned against imposing personal views on the actions of others and framed the public interest as a “balancing act”.

“There are some red lines that lawyers shouldn’t cross, but there’s an awfully large grey area where we’ve got these moral compass issues engaged and there is no definitive answer.”

Mayson also said that junior lawyers may find themselves in a difficult position if the senior leadership of the firm decides to take actions that they’re not comfortable with: “The question then is not whether the firm is doing something wrong, but more likely to be: ‘Are you in the right place?’”

In addition, Mayson cited various ways in which law firms can publicise their ethical stances, including ethics committees, town hall meetings, discussions with colleagues and including ethics statements in annual reports or websites. He also called on the regulators to “be much quicker and tougher in dealing with those practitioners whose actins are manifestly not in the public interest”.