Attorneys frequently have to address both conflicts of interest and duty.
In business, ideally all parties are fairly represented, with those in power not having ethical dilemmas or putting their interests ahead of others. In reality, business constantly results in problematic conflicts of interests or conflicts of duty. People sometimes confuse these two terms because they both involve an inability to act in the best interest of someone else, but the two terms are distinct. This is apparent through a comparison of the terms.
Conflict of Duty Definition
As explained by the American University Law Review and the Journal of Philosophy, Science and Law, a conflict of duty is a conflict between two different legal or ethical duties. In a conflict of duty, a person cannot fulfill the duties he has to one or more parties because the interests the parties have conflict.
Conflict of Interest Definition
Definitions from The Free Dictionary and Business Ethics show that a conflict of interest is any situation that puts a person or business in a position to abuse their professional power for personal or business gain. A person does not need to complete this abuse of power for the conflict to exist--only the potential for abuse needs to be present.
Position
A conflict of interest may arise for a person of any position. All that needs to be present is the possibility of the person seeking gain at the expense of the other party or parties. Conflicts of duty usually involve those who represent or provide services to someone else (e.g., lawyers, politicians). This is where some of the confusion about the two terms is held--people associate people like lawyers and politicians as having power and, therefore, translate conflicts for those individuals as conflicts of interest rather than conflicts of duty.
Prevention
The easiest way to prevent conflicts of duty is to limit the number of individuals a person serves or represents, since this limits the number of potentially conflicting obligations a person has to other parties. Conflicts of interest are harder to prevent. A person who wants to eliminate a conflict of interest either has to remove the appearance of power (easiest, usually involves withdrawal of the individual from their position of power) or provide a logical case for why the potential abuse of power will not occur (more difficult, involves persuasion and trust).
Interrelationship
Although conflicts of interest and conflicts of duty are very different, there are situations where both types of conflicts may be present. For example, a businessperson may have multiple clients who all need tasks completed (conflict of duty) and then decide to charge the clients they dislike higher fees (conflict of interest).
