Engineer A’s role as a private forensic engineering expert should not present any clear or apparent conflict of interest. Engineer A has an obligation to (1) fully disclose to Attorney X his role as the chairman of the boiler code standards and safety committee within an engineering society, and (2) advise Attorney X that Engineer B serves a member of one of the technical subcommittees within the boiler code standards and safety committee. Engineer A has an obligation to be respectful of Engineer B in his role as a member of one of the technical subcommittees within the boiler code standards and safety committee and also not engage in any written or verbal exchanges with Engineer B regarding the pending litigation without direction from legal counsel.

As the NSPE Board of Ethical Review has noted on several occasions, professional engineers are frequently called upon and play a critical role as forensic engineering experts in connection with civil litigation. These professional engineers have an ethical responsibility to perform these services with honesty and integrity and to be truthful and honest in their professional reports regardless of their role, whether performing work in the private sector or as members of organizations with public roles, such as professional or technical societies. This Board has examined various situations, including those involving a professional engineer working in both the public and the private sector during the same period of time. For example, in the early BER Case No. 67-1, John Doe, a professional engineer, was a county engineer and a member of the county planning board. He also engaged in part-time consulting practice. Doe prepared the plans for a subdivision development in his capacity as a consulting engineer; then, as county engineer, he recommended approval of his plans to the county planning board. As a member of the county planning board, he later voted to approve those plans. In ruling that Doe’s actions were unethical, the Board found it abundantly clear that his operations were in direct conflict with the NSPE Code of Ethics. In his capacity as an engineer in private practice, Doe had prepared plans for approval by a governmental body on which he served as a member. Said the Board, “[Doe] would be in violation of NSPE Code even if he had not been a member of the county planning board by virtue of his employment as the county engineer and the responsibility of the county engineer to submit the plans to the county planning board with recommendation.” Thirty-five years later in BER Case No. 02-8, Engineer A served as a traffic engineer for the State Department of Transportation. Engineer A reviewed private engineering firm contracts and traffic signal plans, specifica...

Engineer A is a professional engineer with expertise in mechanical engineering who also serves as a forensic engineering expert. Engineer A, who chairs a boiler code standards and safety committee within an engineering society, has been requested by Attorney X, a defense attorney, to conduct an investigation and potentially serve as an expert witness on behalf of a boiler manufacturer in connection with a personal injury case involving a pressure vessel explosion. Engineer A learns that the forensic engineering expert for the plaintiff, Engineer B, is a member of one of the technical subcommittees within the boiler code standards and safety committee that Engineer A chairs.

What are Engineer A’s ethical obligations under the circumstances?