Bad Agent, Good Citizen?
BAD AGENT, GOOD CITIZEN? Claire Hill,* Brett McDonnell** & Aaron Stenz*** INTRODUCTION Lawyers are agents for their principals—their clients.1 The Restatement (Third) of Agency sets forth an agent’s duty: “[A]n agent has a fiduciary duty to act loyally for the principal’s benefit in all matters connected with the agency relationship.”2 A good agent is a loyal agent. The Restatement also sets forth several important components of the duty: “An agent has a duty not to acquire a material benefit from a third party in connection with transactions conducted or other actions taken on behalf of the principal or otherwise through the agent’s use of the agent’s position.”3 Further, “[a]n agent has a duty not to deal with the principal as or on behalf of an adverse party in a transaction connected with the agency relationship.”4 A lawyer who violates these duties is a bad agent, in breach of her fiduciary duty of loyalty to her principal.5 Lawyers also have professional obligations to the broader society. Notably, they cannot help their clients commit crimes, nor can they be party to their client’s concealment of crimes.6 Even consistent with those obligations, and certainly in gray areas (such as avoiding inconvenient knowledge),7 whether they are being good agents or bad agents for their clients, lawyers can help—or harm—the broader society.8 * Professor and James L. Krusemark Chair in Law, University of Minnesota Law School. ** Dorsey & Whitney Chair in Law, University of Minnesota Law School *** J.D. Candidate, 2020, University of Minnesota Law School, This Article was prepared for the Colloquium on Corporate Lawyers, hosted by the Fordham Law Review and the Stein Center for Law and Ethics on October 11, 2019, at Fordham University School of Law.
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