When can client consent fail to resolve a lawyer’s conflict of interest?

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illustration from Charles Dickens's Bleak House — Legal ethics Illustration by Hablot Knight Browne for Charles Dickens's *Bleak House*. Here Lady Dedlock is visited by her cunning old lawyer, who discovers her deepest secret and threatens to reveal it to her husband.

In the field of legal ethics, a lawyer is generally prohibited from representing clients with conflicting interests. While a client may provide consent to such representation following a full disclosure of the actual or potential conflict, this consent is not always sufficient to resolve the issue.1

Client consent fails to resolve a conflict of interest when the representation is deemed to adversely affect the public interest. Ethical standards prioritize the integrity of the legal system and the duty of faithful representation; therefore, even if a client is willing to waive a conflict, the law may still forbid the attorney from proceeding if the arrangement undermines public trust or violates fundamental professional obligations.1

Furthermore, lawyers must maintain loyalty to their clients, which precludes them from acting against a client's interests, using confidential information from a former client to their disadvantage, or accepting employment that seeks to undo previous work performed for a client. These prohibitions exist to ensure that legal counsel remains objective and dedicated solely to the client's cause.1