Ethical And Theoretical Foundations Of Legal Practitioners

All training required for judges, public defenders and prosecutors require a law degree and membership in The American Bar Association in which the state they practice law in. The American Bar Association set professional standards for conduct and certification for lawyers starting in the 19th century (Gufaston& McClellon, 2012). A new model code of professional responsibility has mandated conduction of the procedures of trials that must conform to the core requirements of law set with specific standards (Pollock, 2014). For this very reason of non reliability in regards to set training standards of particular types of lawyers and established practice, Burger (1973) contended that how lawyers trained in and after law school, will ultimately dictate their proficiencies as counsel in our adversary criminal justice system. This will eventually decide the virtue and essence of our justice within the system of courts. With hardly any if not non existent live training in the court system, no required or developed standard is set strictly for attorneys’ and judges to complete; reassuring individual rights of citizens are upheld to the highest standards during the legal process, proving these law practitioners’ are truly proficient in conducting their vital positions as expected in the Constitutional performance of protecting people’s rights (Burger, 1973). The general public assumes that every graduate law student, merely through designation from the bar which then

I had never before considered the ethics behind lawyers, doctors and other similar professions. The first example given is about a guy confessing to his friend that he murdered someone and where the body was located. It was pointed out that there is a moral ideal that friends do not snitch on friends, but on the flip side there is an ethical pet where the friends must call the cops because they cannot condone murder. The second scenario given is about a guy confessing of murder to his lawyer. In this situation the lawyer cannot go to the police even though it is ethically right. If the lawyer were to go to the police and tell him what he knew he would be disbarred. There is a contract between client and lawyer for confidentiality and if this is broken, than the lawyer can no longer be trusted. This brings up a lot of issues about morals versus ethics and what should be done in different scenarios. Later it goes into research and how that is one area where many professionals are not checked at. This can lead to too much power with no one stopping and seeing if it is

Kruse, looks at David Luban’s collection of essays, The Good Lawyer, as well as Legal Ethics and Human Dignity. She states that Luban’s analysis focuses on what it means to uphold a client’s human dignity and “is a vision of partisan advocacy in which lawyers strive to match the case theory the lawyer presents . . . with the cares, commitments, and concerns that are most central to the client.” Yet, Kruse feels that Luban’s framework on human dignity suggests that “lawyers dignify their clients by ‘interpreting the law from the client’s viewpoint’” but that Luban does not really develop this

There is an ongoing debate over whether or not lawyers should act as zealous advocates of a client’s goals. While there can be many definitions of zealous advocates, for the purposes of this paper they are defined as “legal agents” and merely vehicles through which the client achieves his or her ends [Farrow, 2008, p. 63]. Based on our readings and class discussions, I have come to realize that this form of advocacy has both its merits and downsides. Zealous advocacy does not seem to be an inherently bad thing, thus I don’t think it should be completely abandoned. It can, however, conflict with the responsibilities and obligations of legal professionals. While lawyers should advocate for their clients, they should not always do so zealously.

Community legal centres like the KLC are committed to providing disadvantaged clients with accesses to justice. The increasing ethical dilemma with client conflict of interest, could potentially jeopardise, as well as

The development of the Paralegal advocacy, originated in the 1960’s, formal programs were created and merged with the public service agencies for training purposes, also providing accessible legal services, to individuals whom were unable to afford the lofty prices of legal counsel. Before long, Governmental agencies, Private law firms and local business promptly sighted the advantages and benefits of employing the specially trained individuals,

This report intends to explain the critical aspects of the professional conduct laws and how they may affect me. Some of the things included that I will be touching on are the Legal Services Act 2007, the purpose of it and describing all of the different sections within the Legal Services Act, information surrounding delegated legislation under the Legal Services Act, cases that have occurred under the Act and the impacts that the Act may have on me specifically in and out of the profession. I will look in depth at delegated legislation regarding who is able to create delegated legislation and also finding a piece of legislation and giving details on what it is about. I will look at a number of cases, explaining what occurred in them, the judges involved and the final outcomes. Finally, I will create a conclusion which refers back to the objectives and gives a closing summary of this report.

The Legal Services Board was created under the Legal Services Act 2007 to promote particular principles within the legal profession, one of these being to ‘encourage an independent, strong, diverse and effective legal profession’. An important aspect of this is the idea of a ‘diverse’ profession; is this really an issue which can be resolved within the profession, or does the encouragement of diversity have to begin right at the start of a person’s legal education? In this essay I will discuss different ways in which attempts have been made to improve diversity within the legal profession and how effective these have been. I will then discuss the importance of law school in shaping the attitudes and values of the legal minds in this

Practicing law is one of the most iconic professions in America. From trial lawyers to tax attorneys, the occupation covers almost every career field. With that being said, lawyers have significant influence over the majority of the economy in the U.S., and with that power comes great responsibility. Notorious for scandals in politics and corporate America, lawyers do not always adhere to the standard of ethics they are expected to follow. Though it is sometimes hard to believe, lawyers have a strict standard of ethics along with stout sanctions for inappropriate behavior.

Cannot use personal view of what legally permissible substitute for those of legislature. Richard Wasserstrom has following description of the principle in the “Lawyers as Professionals: Some Moral Issues”

He believes that playing is a part of training for their moral development, because it teaching them that there are defined roles and rules of behavior. The last stage of Kohlberg theory is called the post-conventional level, when a person reaching this level their moral development the individual can assume the responsibility of judging laws and conventions. Another way to put it, at this level a person bases moral judgments on the higher abstract laws of truth, justice, and morality (Kohlberg, 1983). Kohlberg’s work is important, because it shows a link between moral development and reasoning.

Lawyers are an important part of the justice system. They are advocates of justice insuring that their client receives representation and a fair chance to access justice. However, lawyers themselves are underrepresented within the legal community. They are often overlooked when it comes to suffering from depression and addiction. Lawyers are among the top professionals that suffer due to an unhealthy work environment. They are afraid of losing their job, money is an issue, and their clients are demanding. The American Bar Association should establish efficient programs that will help lawyers because, this organization was created to support the legal profession by providing resources and establishing the rules of the community. It’s important to me that the ABA find efficient ways to help lawyers because, I do not want future law students (like myself) to feel discouraged that they

Educational law clinics raises the ethical dilemma of exploiting vulnerable people in society for pedagogical benefits. As such, if a supervisor believes that a case provides inadequate educative benefit, it may be turned away; or in circumstances whereby a case has been opened, closed. This refusal to help these clients can prove to be problematic in instances where the law clinic is the last avenue of assistance for them. However, a selective service does not necessarily translate to a sub-standard one. As was made clear by Brayne, Duncan and Grimes “once a real-client is taken on there is only one acceptable standard of work – that of professional competence and ethical practice”.

The theoretical perspective of legal realism emphasises what the law is, it reasons that the law can meaningfully instruct people to act in certain social contexts, and for this reason can guide behaviours of those who seek to obey its commands. The theory operates on a premise that it adheres to often by most laymen and many who have legal training where ‘the law’ is concerned with and is intrinsically tied to the real-world outcomes of particular cases. Legal Realism remains influential and has been remarkably successful in changing the terms of legal discourse and in undermining the idea of a self-regulating legal system. Legal realism combines the connection between law and social reality; this would enable judicial decisions by the

On the face of it, clinical legal education is beneficial to both the student cohort and the local community as it provides students with the opportunity to gain practical experience while delivering a service to the public. It is defined by Kerrigan as ‘learning through participation in real or realistic legal interactions, coupled with reflections on this experience’. Through this, a focus is placed on facilitating learning through a practice-based approach grounded on client interaction. This generates a natural tension between fulfilling the educational aims of a clinic and the legal service needs of clients. This paper will examine such tensions, practically and theoretically, in respect to pedagogical instruction and lack of supervisory resources while providing personal reflections. It will conclude that there is—to an exaggerated extent—an imbalance between the educational aims of law clinics and the legal service needs of clients; however, this is not to the detriment of the client as it does not affect the quality of legal aid given by students.