The Ethics of Representing Organizations: Legal Fictions for Clients

Whether a company, organization, entity, family business, a publicly held corporation, non-profit, or even the government, the legal representation of an organization is rarely as straightforward as representing a single person. The client in such cases is a construct-a legal fiction-that often operates through many individuals with different roles, views, and interests, and therefore requires an attorney to consider any number of special professional-responsibility issues. The Ethics of Representing Organizations: Legal Fictions for Clients is the first book to practically address ethics within the special context of representing entities.

Fox and Martyn have combined their extensive legal knowledge and designed an accessible aid for attorneys-whether in the representation of an organization as outside counsel or as in-house counsel-in this increasingly important and complex but often-neglected process. The Ethics of Representing Organizations not only outlines ethical duties for lawyers, but also includes strategic remedies and suggestions for ethical problems as they arise.

Lawrence J. Fox is a partner at Drinker Biddle & Reath where he specializes in corporate and securities litigation; he has published extensively in the field of ethics and is known as a leading expert on the topic.

Susan J. Martyn is the Stoepler Professor of Law and Values at the University of Toledo College of Law, where she teaches Legal Ethics, Bioethics & Law, and Health Care Provider Liability; she too has published extensively on the issue of legal ethics.