Читать книгу How to Be a Lawyer - Jason Mendelson - Страница 36

You learn about being a fiduciary in law school. Depending on who teaches the subject, this term can sound boring, scary, or confusing. Law schools are poor at teaching this subject in context and it's too bad because it is essential to your role as an attorney.

Think about this: becoming a lawyer confers a unique state-granted privilege to act as a fiduciary for someone else. This is not an agent or a broker but a fiduciary. Wow. This is an honor and a privilege. It's one of the most rewarding things we do as lawyers.

Okay, so you've heard the word before. It's discussed in your corporate law and ethics classes, but often buried among other important topics. Too often it's couched in terms of someone else acting as a fiduciary, not you, and it's unfortunately included when learning about agents or brokers. There are courses on agency law, which used to be mandatory, but are now mostly optional, and still do not directly address what it means to be a fiduciary.

When you act as a fiduciary, you are in an essential position of trust for someone else and are charged with making decisions on their behalf in their, rather than your own, best interests. Yeah, it's a mouthful. Please go back and read that last sentence two more times.

Being a fiduciary is at the heart of being a lawyer. It's a vital legal and ethical relationship that's also integral to being a good CEO, board member, banker, investment advisor, partner, and just a competent person in our abstract complex world.

Ultimately, what it means to be a fiduciary is to use your specialized skills, access, and resources to act on behalf of another in their best interests, or how that person would act on their own behalf if they had your education, skills, access, or resources.

Four principles to keep in mind in your capacity as a fiduciary:

1 Know if you're acting as a fiduciary and on whose behalf.

2 Slow down.

3 Seek advice and help.

4 Always put your clients' interests ahead of your own.