Loyalty Principle Invoked for Former Client Government Protection
P · Principle
Individual
http://proethica.org/ontology/case/170#Loyalty_Principle_Invoked_for_Former_Client_Government_Protection
Properties
Instance of
Applied to
Engineer A Dam Failure Forensic Investigation Engineer
U.S. Government Dam Failure Investigation Client
Balancing with
Contractor's interest in retaining Engineer A
Engineer mobility
Concrete expression
Engineer A's duty of loyalty to his former client — the U.S. government — persists in the form of the prohibition on adverse participation using specialized knowledge acquired during the engagement; loyalty does not end with payment and termination but continues as a bar to weaponizing the former client's own information against it
Confidence
0.85
Importance
medium
Interpretation
Post-engagement loyalty is narrower than active-engagement loyalty but still operative; it prohibits the specific act of adverse participation using specialized knowledge, even if it does not prohibit all future dealings with parties adverse to the former client
Invoked by
NSPE Board of Ethical Review
NSPE Code Section III.4.b
Tension resolution
Residual post-engagement loyalty prevails over engineer mobility when the specific project and specialized knowledge are directly implicated in the adverse proceeding
Source Evidence
Source text
Engineers shall not, without the consent of all interested parties, participate in or represent an adversary interest in connection with a specific project or proceeding in which the engineer has gained a particular specialized knowledge on behalf of a former client or employer.
Text references
Engineers shall not, without the consent of all interested parties, participate in or represent an adversary interest in connection with a specific project or proceeding in which the engineer has gained a particular specialized knowledge on behalf of a former client or employer.
There is nothing in the record to indicate that Engineer A was given the consent of his former client, the U.S. government, to represent the interests of the contractor
TTL
@prefix case170: <http://proethica.org/ontology/case/170#> .
@prefix owl: <http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#> .
@prefix proeth: <http://proethica.org/ontology/intermediate#> .
@prefix prov: <http://www.w3.org/ns/prov#> .
@prefix rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#> .
@prefix xsd: <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#> .
case170:Loyalty_Principle_Invoked_for_Former_Client_Government_Protection a proeth:Loyalty,
owl:NamedIndividual ;
rdfs:label "Loyalty Principle Invoked for Former Client Government Protection" ;
proeth:appliedto "Engineer A Dam Failure Forensic Investigation Engineer",
"U.S. Government Dam Failure Investigation Client" ;
proeth:balancingwith "Contractor's interest in retaining Engineer A",
"Engineer mobility" ;
proeth:conceptCategory "Principle" ;
proeth:concreteexpression "Engineer A's duty of loyalty to his former client — the U.S. government — persists in the form of the prohibition on adverse participation using specialized knowledge acquired during the engagement; loyalty does not end with payment and termination but continues as a bar to weaponizing the former client's own information against it" ;
proeth:confidence "0.85" ;
proeth:discoveredincase "170" ;
proeth:discoveredinpass "2" ;
proeth:discoveredinsection "discussion" ;
proeth:firstdiscoveredat "2026-03-01T21:06:41.468366+00:00" ;
proeth:firstdiscoveredincase "170" ;
proeth:generatedattime "2026-03-01T21:06:41.468366+00:00" ;
proeth:importance "medium" ;
proeth:interpretation "Post-engagement loyalty is narrower than active-engagement loyalty but still operative; it prohibits the specific act of adverse participation using specialized knowledge, even if it does not prohibit all future dealings with parties adverse to the former client" ;
proeth:invokedby "NSPE Board of Ethical Review",
"NSPE Code Section III.4.b" ;
proeth:principleclass "Loyalty" ;
proeth:sourcetext "Engineers shall not, without the consent of all interested parties, participate in or represent an adversary interest in connection with a specific project or proceeding in which the engineer has gained a particular specialized knowledge on behalf of a former client or employer." ;
proeth:tensionresolution "Residual post-engagement loyalty prevails over engineer mobility when the specific project and specialized knowledge are directly implicated in the adverse proceeding" ;
proeth:textreferences "Engineers shall not, without the consent of all interested parties, participate in or represent an adversary interest in connection with a specific project or proceeding in which the engineer has gained a particular specialized knowledge on behalf of a former client or employer.",
"There is nothing in the record to indicate that Engineer A was given the consent of his former client, the U.S. government, to represent the interests of the contractor" ;
proeth:wasattributedto "Case 170 Extraction" ;
prov:generatedAtTime "2026-03-01T21:17:58.665809"^^xsd:dateTime ;
prov:wasGeneratedBy "ProEthica Case 170 Extraction" .
Metadata
Extraction details
Discovered in case
170
Discovered in pass
2
Discovered in section
discussion
First discovered
2026-03-01T21:06:41.468366+00:00
First case
170
Generated
2026-03-01T21:06:41.468366+00:00
Attributed to
Case 170 Extraction
Generated
2026-03-01T21:17:58.665809
Generated by
ProEthica Case 170 Extraction