legal ethics

Introduction

      principles of conduct that members of the legal profession are expected to observe in their practice. They are an outgrowth of the development of the legal profession itself.

Background

      Practitioners of law emerged when legal systems became too complex for all those affected by them to fully understand and apply the law. Certain individuals with the required ability mastered the law and offered their skills for hire. No prescribed qualifications existed, and these specialists were not subject to legal controls. The incompetent, unscrupulous, and dishonest charged exorbitant fees, failed to perform as promised, and engaged in delaying and obstructive tactics in the tribunals before which they appeared. Action to prevent such abuses was taken by legislation and by judicial and other governmental measures. The right to practice law came to be limited to those who met prescribed qualifications. Expulsion from practice and criminal penalties were introduced for various types of misconduct.

      These measures did more than correct abuses. They also gave recognition to the social importance of the functions performed by lawyers (lawyer) and identified those who were qualified to perform them. A consciousness developed within the profession of the need for standards of conduct. This became the core of legal, or professional, ethics.

      Prior statutes, court rules, and other government directives remained in force along with the profession's self-imposed ethical standards. Together with malpractice actions, they constituted the sum total of the restraints placed upon lawyers in regard to their professional conduct. This pattern has continued to the present time.

      In many countries professional associations of lawyers have sought to commit the principles of ethical conduct to written form, but a written code is not essential. Ethical principles may exist by common understanding as well as in the literature and writings of the profession. A code, however, makes ethically obligatory principles readily available to the practitioner (and the public) and thus helps to assure wider observance of them. When such a code does exist, it usually contains both statements of general ethical principles and particular rules governing specific problems of professional ethics. But no code can foresee every ethical problem that may arise in the practice of law. Hence, in many jurisdictions codes are supplemented by opinions rendered and published by bar association committees.

Dual responsibility (comparative law) of the legal professional

      Principles of legal ethics, whether written or unwritten, not only regulate the conduct of legal practice but also reflect the basic assumptions, premises, and methods of the legal system within which the lawyer operates. They reflect as well the profession's conception of its own role in the administration of justice. In democratic countries such as the United States, Canada, the member states of the European Union, and Japan, this conception includes the fundamental assumption that the typical lawyer, although principally engaged in the representation of private interests, has a considerable public responsibility as well. For a lawyer is an officer of the court who plays a critical role in upholding the integrity of the legal system. Accordingly, a lawyer must eschew tactics that would defeat the fair administration of justice, even while working vigorously to advance the interests of a client.

      Naturally, the interests of client and society do not always coincide, and the principles of legal ethics do not always indicate the lawyer's obligations in such situations. Should a lawyer cross-examine an adverse witness in a way that undermines or destroys his testimony when the lawyer believes the witness is actually telling the truth? May he invoke rules of evidence to exclude points that would weigh against his case but that he considers to be true or probably true? May he take advantage of the errors of an unskilled opponent? Should he demand a jury trial for purposes of delay when such a trial would have no advantage for his client? These questions may be answered differently in legal systems that operate on different premises. A system in which a lawyer presents a client's case in the most favourable light permitted by law and in which the court must decide the merits of the case may well produce different answers than those produced in a system that assigns a higher priority to the lawyer's duty to the state to assure proper administration of justice.

Areas of application

Conflict of interest

      A lawyer is at times faced with the question of whether to represent two or more clients whose interests conflict. Quite aside from his ethical obligations, the legal systems of the world generally prohibit a lawyer from representing a client whose interests conflict with those of another, unless both consent.

      In Anglo-American legal systems the prohibition has three aspects. First, the attorney is not permitted to represent two or more clients concurrently if, in order to further the interests of one, he must forgo advancing the conflicting interests of another. In short, he cannot be both for and against a client. Second, he cannot subsequently accept employment from another for the purpose of undoing what he had earlier been retained to accomplish. Third, he may not accept subsequent employment from another if it involves the use, the appearance of use, or the possible use of confidential information received from his former client. Such actions are forbidden by law and by legal ethics.

      To illustrate, an attorney may not as a matter of course prepare an instrument for both buyer and seller in which their respective rights are defined. He may not prepare an instrument or negotiate a settlement for a client and later accept employment from another to defeat that instrument or settlement. He ought not represent both a driver and his passenger in recovering damages from another party charged with negligent driving in a collision, since the passenger may have a claim against his own driver as well. He may not represent two or more defendants in a criminal prosecution if their respective defenses are inconsistent or, possibly, even when the case against one is stronger than the case against the other. The same principles apply with respect to interests of the attorney that may detract from the full and faithful representation of his clients. For example, he may not purchase property that he has been retained to acquire for his client, nor may he draw a will in which he is a beneficiary.

      These conflict-of-interest prohibitions are not absolute. The client may consent to the representation after full disclosure of the actual or possible conflict. But even the client's consent may not suffice if public interest is deemed to be adversely affected.

      Difficult conflict-of-interest issues also arise in the context of government service. In the United States, for example, it has become common for lawyers to pass frequently back and forth between public and private employment, a situation that has enabled some of them to use their position in the former setting to benefit their clients and themselves in the latter. The problems that result from this so-called “revolving door” have been addressed both in legislation and in rules of professional conduct. Efforts have also been made to address the situation of the practicing lawyer who, as a member of a legislature, is enlisted by clients to support or oppose legislation or to secure favourable decisions from administrative agencies that are dependent on legislative financial support.

Confidential communications (privileged communication)

      In Anglo-American countries judicial decisions, legislation, and legal ethics generally forbid a lawyer to testify about confidential communications between himself and his client unless the client consents. Provisions regarding confidentiality are also found in such diverse legal systems as those of Japan, Germany, and Russia. In countries in which the attorney's obligation to protect state interests is given relatively greater emphasis, there may be a duty to disclose information when it is deemed to be to the state's advantage.

Advertising and solicitation

      Traditionally, advertising by lawyers was forbidden almost everywhere. It was a long-standing principle of legal ethics in Anglo-American countries that an attorney must not seek professional employment through advertising or solicitation, direct or indirect. The reasons commonly given were that seeking employment through these means lowers the tone of the profession, that it leads to extravagant claims by attorneys and to unrealistic expectations on the part of clients, and that it is inconsistent with the professional relationship that should exist between attorney and client. A more basic reason appears to have been the social necessity of restraining the motive of personal gain and of stressing the objective of service.

      This situation changed in 1977, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that lawyers could not be barred from advertising their fees. The American Bar Association subsequently revised its code of ethics to include provisions and guidelines for advertising and suggested that lawyers limit their advertising to basic information about services and fees. Within narrow limits the same trend has made itself felt in England, though attorneys are still prohibited from such self-promotion in some countries on the Continent.

Fees

      In principle, attorneys are ethically enjoined to keep their fees reasonable, neither too high nor too low. Attempts to control fees have included the passage of general statutes designed to regulate compensation for legal services of all sorts, as in Germany; the imposition of fees by courts in contentious matters, as in England and Wales; and the establishment of advisory fee schedules by the legal profession, as in Canada, France, Spain, and Japan. In the United States, local bar associations sometimes enforced minimum fee schedules through disciplinary proceedings; however, the U.S. Supreme Court held in 1975 that such practices violated antitrust laws.

      The legal profession in the United States has traditionally recognized an obligation to serve poor clients without compensation. The vast extent of the task, however, has prompted the development of paid legal services for the poor, such as through legal aid societies and public defenders. Since the late 20th century legal-aid services have grown significantly in many countries. In Germany legal insurance plans are widespread, and they have also begun to appear in the United States.

      Fees that are contingent on the successful outcome of litigation or settlement are widely used in the United States, particularly in automobile-accident and other negligence cases, and they are accepted as ethical by the U.S. legal (legal aid) profession. The fee is usually an agreed percentage (typically 20 to 40 percent) of the recovery. The justification given is that this arrangement makes the courts accessible to persons who would otherwise be unable for financial reasons to press their claims. But contingent fees give the attorney a financial stake in the outcome of litigation—which is ordinarily frowned upon. The converse consideration may be that in this type of case, where the outcome is difficult to predict, the lawyer also assumes the risk of losing his fee. Furthermore, although free legal aid has removed the need for a poor person to enter into such a transaction, legal aid is not available to persons who are not poor but are not wealthy enough to engage in extended litigation. In countries other than the United States contingent fees are, nevertheless, generally prohibited. Nor are they permitted in the United States in criminal and divorce cases, in cases to secure a pardon, or in the enactment of legislation.

Criminal (criminal law) cases

      Both the prosecution (prosecutor) and the defense of criminal cases raise special ethical issues. The prosecutor represents the state, and the state has an interest not only in convicting the guilty but also in acquitting the innocent. The prosecutor also has an ethical and, in considerable measure, a legal duty to disclose to the defense any information known to him and unknown to the defense that might exonerate the defendant or mitigate the punishment. He must not employ trial tactics that may lead to unfair convictions, nor should he prosecute merely to enhance his political prospects.

      The defense counsel has different concerns. Under Anglo-American law an accused may compel the state to prove that he is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. The defense counsel, therefore, becomes ethically obligated to require the state to produce such proof, whether or not the attorney believes his client to be guilty. His client's guilt is for the tribunal to determine. The attorney may not, however, deliberately resort to perjured or other false testimony. Similar principles hold in civil-law countries. When the client, against the attorney's advice, insists on testifying falsely, the ethical course to be pursued has not been fully settled. Some maintain that the attorney should withdraw, if possible, or else merely permit the client to testify without aiding him or asserting the truth of the testimony given.

Globalization

      Although economic globalization has contributed in important ways to the worldwide growth of the legal profession, it has also created the potential for conflict between different ethical traditions. In Europe, for example, standards of confidentiality for in-house counsel differ from those observed by independent attorneys, a fact that has created difficulties for some U.S.-trained lawyers working for European firms. In China the rapidly increasing market for legal services has attracted legal professionals from democratic countries, which generally do not share the Chinese conception of an attorney's public obligations. It is likely that these kinds of challenges will be intensified by the continuing liberalization of the international legal market and by the development of technologies that enable lawyers to give advice from their offices to clients in distant and very different jurisdictions. Unfortunately, the legal professions of most countries have so far failed to develop rules to address ethical issues arising from globalization. One exception is the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe, which has taken steps toward a common set of principles for legal professionals in the member states of the European Union.

Maynard E. Pirsig Mary Ann Glendon William P. Alford

Additional Reading

Leading texts on legal ethics include Geoffrey C. Hazard, Jr., and W. William Hodes, The Law and Ethics of Lawyering, 4th ed. (2005); and American Law Institute, Restatement of the Law, the Law Governing Lawyers, 2 vol. in 1 (2001). Important scholarly studies of ethical practices of the U.S. legal profession are David Luban, Lawyers and Justice: An Ethical Study (1988); Robert L. Nelson, David M. Trubeck, and Rayman L. Solomon (eds.), Lawyers' Ideals/Lawyers' Practices: Transformations in the American Legal Profession (1992); Deborah L. Rhode, In the Interests of Justice: Reforming the Legal Profession (2000); William H. Simon, The Practice of Justice: A Theory of Lawyers' Ethics (1998); and Richard Wasserstrom, “Lawyers as Professionals: Some Moral Issues,” Human Rights, 5:1 (1975).Systems of legal ethics around the world are treated in John J. Barcelo and Roger C. Cramton (eds.), Lawyers' Practice and Ideals: A Comparative View (1999); Jens Drolshammer and Michael Pfeifer (eds.), The Internationalization of the Practice of Law (2001); Louise G. Trubeck and Jeremy Cooper (eds.), Educating for Justice Around the World: Legal Education, Legal Practice and the Community (1999). The challenges posed by globalization are the subject of Sydney M. Cone, International Trade in Legal Services: Regulation of Lawyers and Firms in Global Practice (1996; originally published as The Regulation of Foreign Lawyers, 1980).William P. Alford

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