Conflicts of interest pop up everywhere. Judges have to recues themselves from cases when they know a defendant personally because that is a conflict of interest. Politicians have to turn down cabinet positions due to potential conflicts of interest. Even that ad agency on Mad Men had to put Pete through all kinds of daddy-issue induced hell because they wanted a new airline client and representing two clients in the same industry would have been a conflict of interest. So do we freelance writers experience conflicts of interest?

Just to be on the safe side, I looked up the definition of “conflict of interest.”  Apparently the phrase dates from 1843 and means:

A conflict between the private interests and the official responsibilities of a person in a position of trust

Aside from breaking the rule of using a word in a phrase to define the phrase (and you call yourself a dictionary, Merriam-Webster.com!?), this seems to imply that only people in positions of great power can even experience conflicts of interest.  I’m not saying that we writers aren’t pretty powerful folks. In fact, I think that, if the agency on Mad Men has them, then we may very well end up with conflicts of interest, too.

But I’m really not sure how to pinpoint them. Do you know? Take a look at the scenario and hypothetical* questions below and tell me in the comments what you think.  You’ll notice that I answer the first question with authority, but become progressively more confused as the questions progress.

Scenario: Writer X has two local doctor clients. Both doctors and in the same neighborhood, practice the same kind of medicine and offer the same benefits to their patients.

Q1:  Doctor A wants Writer X to create marketing materials for her practice while Doctor B wants Writer X to create an information packet he intends to distribute to other doctors. Is that a conflict of interest?

A: No, this would not be a conflict of interest. Though both doctors may be competing for the same patients, Writer X is not helping both doctors compete for patients. The actual projects she is working on do not conflict.

Q2: Now Doctor B has realized that Doctor A is taking his patients, and he wants Writer X to also make him some fancy marketing materials like she made for Doctor A. Is that a conflict of interest?

A: Possibly. This sounds like the Mad Men conflict to me. While writers should be professional and give the same level of service to all clients, perhaps she secretly likes one doctor better and (perhaps unintentionally) makes his marketing materials sparkle. Plus, Writer X’s work is basically competing with itself in the same market. On the other hand, while she made the marketing materials, the argument can be made that the marketing materials only highlight what is already there (i.e. the doctor’s experience, features of the practice, etc.) and so it’s still really the doctor and not the marketing materials that makes the final sale. Back on the first hand, a conflict of interest is present when “even the appearance of impropriety” occurs, not just when something improper happens. So, let’s say the writer made spectacular marketing materials for both doctors. Because she could have somehow sabotaged one doctor’s copy is she involved in a conflict of interest?

Q3: Now let’s get down to the real conflict. We’ll call this question “Doctor Thunder Dome.” Doctor A and Doctor B are both up for the exact same award. The award pays a lot of cash and is judged solely on an essay. (Shush, I know this is implausible but I’ve taken the analogy this far so bear with me.) Both Doctors A and B ask Writer X to write their essays. Is this a conflict of interest?

A: Yes! At least, if it is not, it should be. Writer X will basically be competing against herself here. I cannot see any way that Writer X could feel comfortable taking on this assignment. And look at it from the doctors’ shoes: how would they feel if they knew that their essay and their biggest competitor’s essay were written by the same person? On a slightly different note, does it change when a cash reward is at stake? One would think that the income earned through patients gained through marketing materials are the equivalent of this cash reward, or are they?

A more real world example of this type of conflict might happen to a grant writer. Grant Writer Y might be contracted by two small nonprofits to write grant proposals for the same money from the same foundation.  Though, once again, it should be the actual traits of the nonprofit and not the writing style of the writer that wins the grant money, we all know that the writing is vital. In my opinion this situation, too, would be a conflict of interest.

And what factor does time play in conflicts of interest? Say that Doctor B asked Writer X to design those marketing materials a year later? Does the conflict of interest have a statute of limitations or does the fact that the marketing materials still compete against one another take precedence? (I assume that it would.)

I’m opening this up to the freelance writing community. How would you answer the above hypothetical questions? Is merely working for two clients in the same industry a conflict of interest? Can we freelance writers even have conflicts of interest?  I look forward to your thoughts!

*Seriously, they are. I haven’t yet run into a questionable situation where I had to decide if something I did would be a conflict of interest. I’m not even sure what prompted this post other than simple curiosity.