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All in good faith

26 May 2011 / Felicia Epstein
Issue: 7467 / Categories: Features , Terms&conditions , Employment
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When does an employee owe fiduciary duties, asks Felicia Epstein

It has become common, in the employment context, to assert the existence of a duty of fidelity distinct from fiduciary duties. As Robert Flannigan pointed out in his article “The [Fiduciary] Duty of Fidelity” ((2008) 124 LQR 274), the duty of fidelity is an invention and “faith, good faith, fidelity and loyalty arguably are too closely associated with conventional fiduciary responsibility to serve usefully as sharp descriptors of other functions”. Perhaps for this reason, it is difficult to distinguish between an employee’s duty of fidelity and any fiduciary duties they may owe. It has been commonly stated that all employees are subject to a duty of fidelity but only those in a position with specific powers and responsibilities have fiduciary duties that would include reporting their own misconduct or that of fellow employees.

Global Risks

In Lonmar Global Risks Ltd v West and others [2011] IRLR 138 the claimant sued Tyser Limited, a competitor in the international intermediary brokering market, and

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NEWS
Ceri Morgan, knowledge counsel at Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer LLP, analyses the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Johnson v FirstRand Bank Ltd, which reshapes the law of fiduciary relationships and common law bribery
The boundaries of media access in family law are scrutinised by Nicholas Dobson in NLJ this week
Reflecting on personal experience, Professor Graham Zellick KC, Senior Master of the Bench and former Reader of the Middle Temple, questions the unchecked power of parliamentary privilege
Geoff Dover, managing director at Heirloom Fair Legal, sets out a blueprint for ethical litigation funding in the wake of high-profile law firm collapses
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