Which practice helps avoid conflicts of interest in a law firm?

• A. Maintain strict client confidentiality without considering conflicts.
• B. Fully disclose relationships and implement conflict screening procedures.
• C. Reassign every client to a different firm member regardless of relevance.
• D. Publicly announce a potential conflict to the entire firm.

Answer: (B)

Conflicts of interest arise when a lawyer’s representation of one client could be adverse to another client or to prior obligations, so the best protection is to identify and manage these conflicts proactively. Fully disclosing relationships ensures everyone involved knows where a potential conflict exists, which allows clients to understand the situation and, if appropriate, consent to representation. This transparency also enables the firm to put proper safeguards in place.

Implementing conflict screening procedures—often called ethical walls or screening—physically separates the teams working on different matters and restricts information flow between them. This way, even if a potential conflict exists, the firm can continue representing clients by preventing confidential information from crossing into the conflicting matter and by ensuring that the lawyers who are aware of the conflict do not participate in the related work.

The other options fail to address the situation effectively: simply prioritizing client confidentiality without considering conflicts can leave a firm unknowingly representing conflicting interests; reassigning every client to a different firm member regardless of relevance is impractical and unnecessary when proper screening can manage conflicts; publicly announcing a potential conflict to the entire firm doesn’t establish the necessary protections or obtain informed client consent where required.