Ethics on the Edge

Ethics on the Edge

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On the technical side, I found this difficult to listen to in my car - there seemed to be a significant variation in the volume level for the panelists. However, this is no problem when I listen on my computer. More importantly, I found the discussion regarding the vendor not meeting expectations surprising and, I think, incorrect. Contracts are economic vehicles and breaching them isn't illegal or something I need to tell my clients not to do - the best information is the quote from the Yale law professor, who clearly got it right, but then the panelist reject that analysis, at least in part, as extreme. I would tell my client that I think they would (or may) be breaching and that, if they proceed, they should expect to be liable for damages if it is, in fact, a breach. (If proceeding with the contract would be significantly more expensive than paying the economic loss to the other party, I think it might well be malpractice for me not to present the option of breaching and paying the economic loss.) In reality, I've faced this primarily from the other side. Generally due to changing leadership or business conditions, a customer just doesn't want the services that they've contracted to buy so they simply say they are terminating the contract. I then point out they don't have the right to terminate, but that we will transition services to them and expect to be compensated for our losses from their breach. I don't view our loss as what would have been paid under the contract had they honored it, but as the revenue we would have received for the remainder of the term less the costs we can avoid. When a good lawyer is on the other side, I've been able to work out a solution fairly quickly. In other cases, threats of litigation eventually result in settlement or actual litigation results. In any event, this part of the discussion seemed important and off target to me and is why I gave a "Fair" rating on the quality question below.

Very interesting presentation.

Interesting hypos

This was a really good course. I wish there had been more time to go through more of the hypos.