Kenneth, a senior partner of a large solicitor firm, had recently suffered from a tremendous loss in the stock market leading him in serious financial difficulties.  Meanwhile, one of his long-term trusted clients, ABC Limited, was planning to make a series of large investment in overseas property market in which multi-billion deals would be involved.  The company would soon look for a solicitor firm to take care of the legal part of the project.  With the close work relationship, Kenneth knew that his firm would be a favourable choice but other competitors were also fighting hard to get the business.

One day, an old classmate in law school, Joe, invited Kenneth out for a dinner.  Joe was a senior partner of a competitor solicitor firm which was also interested in the project.  Knowing that Kenneth was in great financial debts, Joe made a very tempting suggestion to Kenneth.  Joe asked Kenneth to pass him the project proposal details prepared by Kenneth’s firm.  Then, Joe would copy the same content and submit another proposal before Kenneth’s firm, in order to win the project contract.  In return, Joe would give Kenneth 5% of the contract value as a token of thanks, which would help Kenneth clear off most of his debts.  Kenneth began to think.

Would Kenneth violate any legislation if he accepted Joe’s offer? What should Kenneth do?

Oscar had been in practice for fifteen years and had built up quite a name for himself. He moved around in society and had been Chairman of the Tigers’ Club for two consecutive years and led a very busy social life.

A man called Peter Pang was charged with deception. Though he pleaded not guilty, he was sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment by the District Court. Peter’s wife, Wendy, was shaken and wanted to file an appeal. She approached Oscar and asked Oscar to represent her husband in the appeal.

At that time, Oscar had a full load of cases and, without paying much attention, told Peter’s wife that he would handle the matter. He put the case aside for quite a while without proceeding. When he finally had time to pick it up, and tried to have it reviewed at the District Court, he was informed that the review had to be made by the High Court.  Oscar was in trouble. It was already too late for an appeal to be lodged at the High Court.

What should Oscar do? Should he tell Wendy the truth about the present situation?  Or should he come clean and apply to the High Court for special leave so that Peter could pursue his appeal?

The duty of a plant engineer in a manufacturing company was to ensure proper consumption and disposal of chemicals used for production.  Being tied down by paperwork, the plant engineer seldom had chance to conduct on-site supervision over the workers in the factory.  To ease the problem, he assigned a technical assistant to carry out the inspection for him.

When several chemical workers had developed serious skin problems and complain about the hostile working environment, the plant engineer began to realize that some of the workers had continuously misused the chemicals. Worse still, chemical wastes were not properly disposed of and might have leaked to a river nearby through the drainage of factory without treatment.

Peter was an engineer in a private construction company. He had been assigned to supervise works carried out on site drainage in the eastern district of Hong Kong Island.  The job was awarded to a subcontractor and the director Stanley was very happy as the project brought in good money and would be renewed annually.

Stanley knew that one of Peter’s hobbies was buying new cars. So each time they met the conversation would invariably turn to the purchase of cars of various makes. Peter realised that Stanley was indebted to him in a way as Stanley’s company secured the contract only by a twist of good luck when others failed to meet the stringent requirements set by Peter.  One day, while chatting, Peter told Stanley he intended to place order for a new limited edition RV Van and he was about to pay the deposit.  But he was in a bit of difficulty over the cash flow at the moment.  Stanley discreetly offered to make the payment for him, and insisted that he need not bother about returning the money so soon.

“It can wait,” Stanley said, “You know it has nothing to do with our business relationship.”

Should Peter accept this loan?  Did Stanley mean it to be a loan or was it an offer in disguise in appreciation of what had happened? What would be the best line of action?  At the end of the day, could Peter let other people know about this arrangement without any scruples?

Alex was a senior engineer of a consultancy firm. Part of his duties was to approve various applications of claims from contractors and subcontractors.  Alex was in a good relationship with a contractor Bernard because they shared the same interest in golfing.

Recently, Alex’s company was responsible for over-seeing a private housing estate project, in which Bernard was one of the subcontractors. One day, Bernard invited Alex for lunch over which Bernard complained the funds for the project was short. He hinted if Alex could use his discretion to approve claims for an additional cost of around $5,000,000 for contingencies. Bernard even tried to convince Alex by offering shares of his company to Alex.

As Alex would retire from his company soon, should he help Bernard this time so that Bernard would return the favour after his retirement?

A senior engineer of a public body was assigned to supervise the construction work of the organisation's new headquarters.  In the process of calling tenders for curtain walling works, a contractor and a close associate of the senior engineer indicated immense interest in the project.

Just before an official invitation for tendering was issued, the contractor offered to secure a highly sought-after golf club membership for the senior engineer to exchange for his assistance in winning the tender.  He requested the senior engineer to manipulate tender requirements to suit his company so that he could obtain the contract for the job.  In fact, the contractor charged a much higher rate than the other construction companies and the technical processes for constructing the curtain walling were not cost-efficient.

A senior engineer of an engineering consultant firm recently undertook to oversee a large private housing project.  Owing to frequent contact, he got along famously with a contractor who was around his age and shared his interest in golfing.

On one occasion, the contractor treated the senior engineer to a lavish meal in the Country Club and then revealed his hidden agenda.  He said that the funds for the housing project were quite short and he wished to have more allowances for contingencies.  As the senior engineer could approve claims for additional costs, the contractor tried persuading him to exercise his discretion and add $5,000,000 to the project.  As a token of thanks, the contractor promised to treat the engineer to a luxurious overseas golf trip.

Jackson and Jonathon were mates in university. They both joined in the same architecture firm as junior architects after graduation. Though they were close friends with similar background, they also competed with each other on almost everything. 

Lately, the company had an internal competition for making a proposal for a redevelopment project of the company’s warehouse in the suburbs. The proposal needed to consider various factors such as the increasing of labour cost, the shortage of land, the unpredictable economic trend, etc. Both Jackson and Jonathon participated in the competition and worked very hard to draw up a winning proposal. Competition between the two friends was fierce. Through personal connection, Jackson got some useful restricted information on the future development of the nearby lots from the Lands Office for his proposal. He casually saved the restricted information to his computer.  One day, Jonathon went to Jackson’s desk asking Jackson out for lunch. Jackson was not around, leaving his draft proposal displayed on the computer screen.  Jonathon took the chance to scan through Jackson’s draft proposal and discovered the restricted information.

Desperate to win the competition and to beat Jackson, Jonathon was in a crossroad. He could easily beat Jackson if he stole Jackson’s ideas and the restricted information to improve his own proposal.

What should Jonathon do? Should Jackson raise an alarm if he found out that Jonathon stole his information? After all, Jackson got the restriction information through improper means.

An engineering graduate joined a construction company as an assistant engineer and was responsible for collecting tenders for specialist services.  He came to know a sub-contractor who was particularly on good terms with him as they were both e-sports lovers.

When time came for a tender to be made for a fire-proofing job, the sub-contractor invited the assistant engineer out to a sumptuous dinner over which he suggested a deal.  The assistant engineer was suggested to go through the tenders secretly and inform the sub-contractor about the lowest bid by texting a code to him. The sub-contractor would then beat that price and get his bid in just before the closing time.  In return, the sub-contractor promised to give the assistant engineer a big "laisee" in the coming Lunar New Year.  To win the young fellow over, the sub-contractor said that someone would get the project any way and he was as good as anyone else.

A senior engineer of a construction consulting firm, who had obtained the information of a large scale private housing development project through participating in its planning work, attempted to make money by selling the restricted information.

The senior engineer sought his brother's help to carry out the plot.  Before formal invitations for tenders were made public, the senior engineer's brother approached a middleman and asked him to look for a contractor who would be interested in the project.  He said he had restricted information to offer which could assist the tenderer to obtain the contract.  In return, he asked for 10% of the contract price as a reward and promised to share part of the profits with the middleman.