Gerry,

>I have an ethical dilemma. I just finished a project for a consulting firm. During the project I did 90% of the work and built up a good rapport with the client. Now that the project has been completed, the client is asking me to work directly with them on various small tasks without going through the consulting firm. I didn’t sign a contract with the consulting firm so there is no legal reason that I couldn’t work directly with the client.
>
>Should I do the work? If so, should I wait a period of time? Inform the consulting firm???

Well, you might want to talk to a lawyer for starters. If it were me I'd want to approach the consulting firm and get their 'blessing'. Before I did that I'd let the company know what I was going to do. Typically the consulting firm will ask for an amount of money to compensate them.

I take the approach of always letting every participant in an exchange like this know everything. That way I can 'sniff out' those who are more willing to bend the ethical rules, so to speak. For example, you might find that the consulting firm responds in a totally ethical manner while the company may suggest you take a deceptive approach. Or visa versa. This information is IMO vey helpful in making tough decisions like this as I always want to work for the most ethical bunch I can.

At the end of the day I have to live with my own conscience.