The involvement of legal counselors in the functional area of public relations practitioners has been increasingly recognized in the practice of crisis communication management, which is considered as one of the most important field of public relations. However, few researches have been conducted to explore this phenomenon in China. From the perspectives of functional encroachment and public relations ethics, this study presents a theory review of the conflicts between public relations practitioners and legal counselors during crisis communication. It discusses the characteristics of legal functional encroachment on public relations, the manager role enactment of public relations practitioners based on their ethic value, and the influence of organizational excellence on this conflict. The study conducts a survey of 236 in-house public relations managers and legal counselors in China who have experiences of crisis communication. The findings show that both public relations practitioners and legal counselors in China perceive that their top executives rely more on the advice of legal counselors when making decisions about crisis response. Additionally, the results show that perceived legal encroachment is more likely to occur in the organizations with higher quality of strategic planning. The study contributes to encouraging China’s public relations practitioners to promote social responsibility of organizations and prove their ethic values rather than only defend organizational legal responsibility behind the conflicts with legal counselors.