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adapt the answer since I misunderstood part of the question
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Marc S
Marc S
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As on what reasons to point out, you have to take your personal objections aside and assess the client with a business perspective. If the client has dubious business practice for example, but your company will haveis already doing business with them, it is clear that they want to balance whether the potential incomestick with it for the company outweighs the potential for legal issuestime being. Between black and white there are a tone of gray spots to fall in, and I'm pretty sure this client is neither clean or evil only. Either way, you can express your concern, but the decision is not up to you unless you really are part of the upper management.

I would like to express my concern regards to working with "CLIENT". There have been past episodes where this type of <products/projects/business area> have been exposed to lawsuits with important losses for the companies involved. [Refer to any jurisprudence that might exist]

Furthermore, a few people in the company share my concerns and would not be comfortable working with this project.

While I acknowledge that working with "CLIENT" will provideprovides us with an important amount of income, I recommend that legal counselmy team is brought in and the consequences ofuncomfortable with working with this project are weighed in before making a decisionclient and we would prefer not to be involved with them.

Please have a thorough review on the client's history and this concerns. I am willing to offer support and information wherever needed.

First of all, thank you for raising your concerns about "CLIENT". I have definitely thought about it, and share (some/many) of your concerns. I have escalated this issue to "NAME OF THE COMPETENT PERSON", to make sure that the project is aligned with the values of our company.

Unfortunately, a decision has been made that we will go on with this project.

I have made my best effort, to the greatest level of my attributions in this company, to try and reassign you to another team, but unfortunately it is not possible because (understaffing / skillsets required / management refused / etc).

I understand that this is a great disappointment for you, and should you decide to work with us in this endeavour, I will strive to make as many accomodations as possible for you to be able to do your job.

Rest assured that this decision is a company decision made by "UPPER MANAGEMENT", and does not hold you, or anybody of our team, accountable for taking it. Legal counsel has been asked for and our company lawyer is working hard contract wise to ensure the project is properly insured for liability to the level of risk we will have to deal with.

Please let me know your comments about this, and feel free to speak me privately if you are more comfortable with it.

As on what reasons to point out, you have to take your personal objections aside and assess the client with a business perspective. If the client has dubious business practice for example, your company will have to balance whether the potential income for the company outweighs the potential for legal issues. Between black and white there are a tone of gray spots to fall in, and I'm pretty sure this client is neither clean or evil only. Either way, you can express your concern, but the decision is not up to you unless you really are part of the upper management.

I would like to express my concern regards to working with "CLIENT". There have been past episodes where this type of <products/projects/business area> have been exposed to lawsuits with important losses for the companies involved. [Refer to any jurisprudence that might exist]

Furthermore, a few people in the company share my concerns and would not be comfortable working with this project.

While I acknowledge that working with "CLIENT" will provide us with an important amount of income, I recommend that legal counsel is brought in and the consequences of working with this project are weighed in before making a decision.

Please have a thorough review on the client's history and this concerns. I am willing to offer support and information wherever needed.

First of all, thank you for raising your concerns about "CLIENT". I have definitely thought about it, and share (some/many) of your concerns. I have escalated this issue to "NAME OF THE COMPETENT PERSON", to make sure that the project is aligned with the values of our company.

Unfortunately, a decision has been made that we will go on with this project.

I have made my best effort, to the greatest level of my attributions in this company, to try and reassign you to another team, but unfortunately it is not possible because (understaffing / skillsets required / management refused / etc).

I understand that this is a great disappointment for you, and should you decide to work with us in this endeavour, I will strive to make as many accomodations as possible for you to be able to do your job.

Rest assured that this decision is a company decision made by "UPPER MANAGEMENT", and does not hold you, or anybody of our team, accountable for taking it. Legal counsel has been asked for and our company lawyer is working hard contract wise to ensure the project is properly insured for liability to the level of risk we will have to deal with.

Please let me know your comments about this, and feel free to speak me privately if you are more comfortable with it.

As on what reasons to point out, you have to take your personal objections aside. If the client has dubious business practice for example, but your company is already doing business with them, it is clear that they want to stick with it for the time being. Between black and white there are a tone of gray spots to fall in, and I'm pretty sure this client is neither clean or evil only. Either way, you can express your concern, but the decision is not up to you unless you really are part of the upper management.

I would like to express my concern regards to working with "CLIENT". There have been past episodes where this type of <products/projects/business area> have been exposed to lawsuits with important losses for the companies involved. [Refer to any jurisprudence that might exist]

While I acknowledge that working with "CLIENT" provides us with an important amount of income, my team is uncomfortable with working with this client and we would prefer not to be involved with them.

Please have a thorough review on the client's history and this concerns. I am willing to offer support and information wherever needed.

First of all, thank you for raising your concerns about "CLIENT". I have definitely thought about it, and share (some/many) of your concerns. I have escalated this issue to "NAME OF THE COMPETENT PERSON", to make sure that the project is aligned with the values of our company.

Unfortunately, a decision has been made that we will go on with this project.

I have made my best effort, to the greatest level of my attributions in this company, to try and reassign you to another team, but unfortunately it is not possible because (understaffing / skillsets required / management refused / etc).

I understand that this is a great disappointment for you, and should you decide to work with us in this endeavour, I will strive to make as many accomodations as possible for you to be able to do your job.

Rest assured that this decision is a company decision made by "UPPER MANAGEMENT", and does not hold you, or anybody of our team, accountable for taking it.

Please let me know your comments about this, and feel free to speak me privately if you are more comfortable with it.

add one note regarding the person staying and not leaving
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Marc S
Marc S
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One last note: It could happen that this person refuses to stay with the project, but refuses to leave. This could even be intentional to be eligible for compensation and unemployment helps. In such cases, refer to local law to find the most appropiate way to handle this situation. Disciplinary dismissal might be justified in such a situation.

One last note: It could happen that this person refuses to stay with the project, but refuses to leave. This could even be intentional to be eligible for compensation and unemployment helps. In such cases, refer to local law to find the most appropiate way to handle this situation. Disciplinary dismissal might be justified in such a situation.

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Marc S
Marc S
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A company goes far beyond the objections and opinions of a single person (or a few of them). It has its own identity, values and vision.

Upper management (C-suite) oversees this identity and values and translate them into specific strategic decisions.

Unless company has a specific trade ethics protocol you can point out to, which doesn't seem to be the case, this decision is far beyond competency of a team lead and requires escalation to the upper management or a delegate with competency on this issue (ethics/equality/compliance/legal department depending on the specific objections), who can escalate at its time to upper management.

Best you can do is escalate this to the next person in the chain of command who can further escalate or make a decision.

As on what reasons to point out, you have to take your personal objections aside and assess the client with a business perspective. If the client has dubious business practice for example, your company will have to balance whether the potential income for the company outweighs the potential for legal issues. Between black and white there are a tone of gray spots to fall in, and I'm pretty sure this client is neither clean or evil only. Either way, you can express your concern, but the decision is not up to you unless you really are part of the upper management.

I would express my concerns like this:

I would like to express my concern regards to working with "CLIENT". There have been past episodes where this type of <products/projects/business area> have been exposed to lawsuits with important losses for the companies involved. [Refer to any jurisprudence that might exist]

Furthermore, a few people in the company share my concerns and would not be comfortable working with this project.

While I acknowledge that working with "CLIENT" will provide us with an important amount of income, I recommend that legal counsel is brought in and the consequences of working with this project are weighed in before making a decision.

Please have a thorough review on the client's history and this concerns. I am willing to offer support and information wherever needed.

If the company goes forward with such a decision, you will have a paper trail of the concerns you have shown, which might not be useful for you at the moment if you plan to leave, but will help out the colleagues who will have to stick with this project, in case things go wrong and they need to find responsibilities.

Finally, as said, if the company keeps pushing forward this client and this is a deal breaker to your morals, find another job and send in your notice. Do not leave your duties unattended until you leave though, you will probably have to deal with this project a few days.

Regarding your team members, if you have authority to reorganise the teams and exclude anybody uncomfortable with it, you can do that for sure. If you need to protect the person raising the hand, you might have to perform a few more movements than just one to avoid drawing attention to him.

Finally, if you cannot reassign your team, you could communicate the problem to that person like this (I have made some assumptions on the potential outcomes, so please adapt to whichever the situation was, this is just an example communication):

First of all, thank you for raising your concerns about "CLIENT". I have definitely thought about it, and share (some/many) of your concerns. I have escalated this issue to "NAME OF THE COMPETENT PERSON", to make sure that the project is aligned with the values of our company.

Unfortunately, a decision has been made that we will go on with this project.

I have made my best effort, to the greatest level of my attributions in this company, to try and reassign you to another team, but unfortunately it is not possible because (understaffing / skillsets required / management refused / etc).

I understand that this is a great disappointment for you, and should you decide to work with us in this endeavour, I will strive to make as many accomodations as possible for you to be able to do your job.

Rest assured that this decision is a company decision made by "UPPER MANAGEMENT", and does not hold you, or anybody of our team, accountable for taking it. Legal counsel has been asked for and our company lawyer is working hard contract wise to ensure the project is properly insured for liability to the level of risk we will have to deal with.

Please let me know your comments about this, and feel free to speak me privately if you are more comfortable with it.

Then it is up to that person to agree to continue or send in his notice, and in that further case, it is a problem for the company to find a replacement, but not the end of the company.