legal ethics handbook - Nova Scotia Barristers' Society

LEGAL ETHICS HANDBOOK
8.For clarification on the role of in-house counsel, which may be governed by Guiding Principles 10 to 13, see
Commentaries 6.9 to 6.11; G. MacKenzie, Lawyers & Ethics: Professional Responsibility and Discipline (Toronto:
Carswell, 1993), Chapter 20, "The Corporate Counsel" and Chapter 21, "Government Lawyers"; and Smith,
supra, note 1, Chapter 10, "The Lawyer as In-House Counsel.."
9."The underlying premise ... is that, human nature being what it is, the solicitor cannot give his exclusive,
undivided attention to the interests of his client if he is torn between his client's interests and his own or his client's
interests and those of another client to whom he owes the self-same duty of loyalty, dedication and good faith."
Davey v. Woolley, Hames, Dale & Dingwall (1982), 35 O.R. (2d) 599 at 602, 133 D.L.R. (3d) 647, per Wilson J.A.
See also Don Murray's article in The Nova Scotia Law News, "A Conflict of Interest Refresher", Volume 25, No. 2,
July 2000.
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