DP1

DecisionPoint
http://proethica.org/ontology/cases#DecisionPoint

DP1

Should Engineer B fully disclose the firm's retainer relationship and his own partnership financial stake before presenting to the chapter and requesting endorsement, or is a general acknowledgment of involvement sufficient?

Engineer B, a partner in the same firm as the retained Engineer A, seeks to appear before the local chapter of the state professional engineering society — of which he is an ordinary dues-paying member — to present the route Y findings and solicit a public endorsement. The core question is whether Engineer B must fully disclose the firm's retainer relationship and his own partnership financial interest before making that solicitation, or whether some lesser form of acknowledgment is sufficient to satisfy his ethical obligations.

At the outset of the presentation, affirmatively identify the citizen group as the retaining party, explain the purpose and scope of the retainer, and explicitly disclose that as a partner in Engineer A's firm, Engineer B shares in the financial interest the retainer creates — making clear that the presentation is retained advocacy rather than disinterested peer analysis — before presenting any technical findings or requesting endorsement.

Disclose that Engineer A's firm was retained by the citizen group and that Engineer A conducted the route study, but present Engineer B's own appearance as that of a chapter member independently reviewing and vouching for the technical findings — without explicitly flagging that Engineer B's partnership stake creates a financial alignment equivalent to Engineer A's direct retainer.

Decline to appear as the presenting engineer and instead arrange for Engineer A — who holds the direct retainer and bears the primary disclosure obligation — to appear before the chapter personally, thereby eliminating the firm-partner advocacy alignment ambiguity and ensuring that the chapter receives the disclosure from the engineer with the most direct financial interest in the outcome.

Engineer B