Legal Memorandum Confidentiality in Civil Matters: Recommendations for ABC, Inc - Essay Example

The Chief Operating Officer further said the media was not aware of this situation. All the executives decided to leak more water but confidentially until the tanks were repaired. My opinion was not sought in making this decision, which I believe was quite unethical and inconsiderate of the harm that might result Hazard, G. C. (2005). The decision is likely to cause harm considering other users of the sewer system will not be aware of harmful water. Most probably there will harm on other people’s property and even pose a health risk to people around the sewer system.

Without knowing there is release of harmful water in the sewer system people will not take any precautions. This leaves them vulnerable to the risks involved. In this realm, there are more than a few options that I can take. However, the decision I make should be considerate to all the stakeholders of the company. The first option in compliance with the ABA MR 1.6 rule is ensuring confidentiality of the matter before anything else (American Bar Association, 2003). As an attorney, it is my obligation to protect the company and hold any information confidential to prevent it from being made use of to the shortcoming of the company (Moliterno, 2006).

However, under certain conditions, revealing of such information is permitted, especially when there is potential harm to others. The first condition that permits disclosing confidential information is, “to prevent reasonably certain death or substantial bodily harm,” (Legal Information Institute, 2002). In this case, it should be investigated whether there is any likely harm to people when the poisonous water is leaked to the sewer system. Considering the water released to the sewer system is highly poisonous waste-water, it has the potential to cause harm to people who might come into contact with the water.

However, if it is certain that nobody might come into contact with the poisonous water, it will not be reasonable to disclose the information to authorities since there may be no physical harm or death. The other condition that allows disclosure of such information is where the client is committing a crime, whether knowingly or without knowing (Walkowiak, 2008). In this case, the executives made a deliberate move to leak waste-water into the sewer system. Considering the decision made is illegal and deliberate, they will be committing a crime by leaking highly poisonous waste water into the sewer system.

As the lawyer representing the company it remains my duty to stop the client from making such decisions that are criminal (Legal Information Institute, 2002). This might end up hurting the people using the sewer, while it remains inconsiderate of all the stakeholders involved with the company. My recommendation to the company is to pose operations that produce the highly poisonous waste water until the tanks are repaired. This would be best for all the stakeholders. It is the ethical thing to take care of, in order to protect all the people including the shareholders who might lose when the company is closed down for such a crime (Martin, Vaught & Solomon, 2010).

This will represent the company as ethical and caring to the community and valuing life considering the waste water is likely to cause harm. Alternatively, the company should take time before leaking any of the waste water into the sewer system to be sure there will be no harm posed to anybody. This will require informing