legal ethics assignment

legal ethics

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Legal ethics broadly refer to the unique responsibilities of lawyers and the legal system given the important role and influence they have in society. Because of their role and their close involvement in the administration of law, lawyers are subject to special standards, regulation, and liability. Most commonly, legal ethics refers to these rules of professional responsibility : the actual responsibilities lawyers must follow by law such as client confidentiality. However, legal ethics can also refer to the discussion on broader moral principles that societies place on lawyers that may not be legally required. 

Professional Responsibility

The law governing the professional responsibility of lawyers, since they are admitted to practice by states, is largely governed by the law of each state. However, all states follow more or less the Model Rules of Professional Conduct created by the ABA , and federal courts and agencies set their own practice rules and apply specific rules like those in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act . While the laws of each state actually govern, the Model Rules and their comments greatly influence the decisions of courts applying professional responsibility laws. The Model Rules set mandatory and discretionary rules and principles on a wide variety of lawyer practice including: client confidentiality , conflicts of interest , fiduciary responsibilities , commingling , and general malpractice . Should a lawyer breach these rules, state courts and enforcement agencies have wide discretion to punish the lawyer and breaching some of the rules like conflicts of interest can impact the outcome of the lawyer’s matters. 

Broader Legal Ethics

Legal ethics can refer to a higher set of norms that lawyers should follow that may not be required by set legal rules. Many of the model rules try to include some of these broader principles. However, the model legal rules tend to be considered a floor of expected requirements of lawyers. Legal ethics can refer to the broader principles lawyers should strive for to ensure the protection and adequate representation of clients. While codes try their best to encourage ethical conduct of lawyers, the legal profession for centuries has struggled with balancing client protections with the often conflicting interests of lawyers and other clients. Thus, legal ethics often involves discussion of the ideals of lawyer conduct, irrespective of the mandates of legal rules.

Further Resources

For more information on the legal ethics rules and debates, see the Model Rules for Professional Conduct , this ABA Guide to State Ethics Resources , this Duke Law Guide to Legal Ethics Requirements , and this Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics, & Public Policy Article on the differences between and limitations of legal codes and ethical principles. 

[Last updated in March of 2023 by the Wex Definitions Team ] 

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LAWS421 - Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility

Credit points, campus offering, prerequisites.

LAWS104 Foundations of Law and Legal Research

Teaching organisation

Unit rationale, description and aim.

• advanced theoretical and technical knowledge in the field of Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility;
• advanced, cognitive, technical and communication skills and the ability to apply these to complex ethical problems in a professional context;
• advanced research and writing skills.

This unit deals with the concept of professional responsibility and the particular responsibilities lawyers have to their clients, to the law, to the courts and to other practitioners. It also examines the regulation of the legal profession including the costs lawyers may charge and recover, restrictions on the conduct of legal practice, professional misconduct, disciplinary proceedings and trust accounting.

Learning outcomes

To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table. Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact. Explore the graduate capabilities.

On successful completion of this unit, students should be able to:

LO1 - Describe and critically evaluate the professional responsibilities of a legal practitioner (GA3, GA4, GA5, GA7, GA8, GA9).  

LO2 - Correctly determine how a legal practitioner should act in the kinds of situations, or facing the kinds of dilemmas, lawyers encounter in practice (GA3, GA4, GA5, GA6, GA8).  

LO3 - Outline the principles relating to holding money on trust (GA5, GA8). 

Graduate attributes

GA3 - apply ethical perspectives in informed decision making

GA4 - think critically and reflectively 

GA5 - demonstrate values, knowledge, skills and attitudes appropriate to the discipline and/or profession 

GA6 - solve problems in a variety of settings taking local and international perspectives into account

GA7 - work both autonomously and collaboratively 

GA8 - locate, organise, analyse, synthesise and evaluate information 

GA9 - demonstrate effective communication in oral and written English language and visual media 

Topics will include: 

• The concept of professional responsibility.   
• The ethical and regulatory framework governing lawyers’ professional conduct.  
• The duties of a legal practitioner to clients, the law, the courts and to fellow practitioners.   
• The structure and regulation of the legal profession.   
• Admission to legal practice, professional misconduct and disciplinary proceeding. 

This content reflects the academic areas of knowledge required for accreditation, Schedule 1,  Legal Profession Admission Rules  2015.   

Professional and personal conduct in respect of a practitioner’s duty: 

(a) to the law, 

(b) to the Courts, 

(c) to clients, including a basic knowledge of the principles relating to the holding of money on trust, and 

(d) to fellow practitioners, 

or topics of such breadth and depth as to satisfy the following guidelines: 

The topics should include knowledge of the various pertinent rules concerning a practitioner’s duty to the law, the Courts, clients and fellow practitioners, and a basic knowledge of the principles relating to the holding of money on trust. 

Learning and teaching strategy and rationale

Mode:Lectures, tutorials, electronic consultation, library tasks and presentations or Online lectures and activities.  

Duration:4 hours per week over 12 weeks or equivalent.  Students are expected to spend 150 hours in total for this unit. 

This level four specified “Priestley” unit allows students to demonstrate knowledge, skills and understanding in a specialist area of law to meet the requirements of accreditation.  

Our strategy is to encourage students to creatively engage with unit content and to apply fundamental legal knowledge, skills and understandings to address legal problems.  

The unit is designed to be delivered in intensive, weekly or online. We have taken a blended learning approach to provide accessibility and flexibility to our students and a student focused approach that increases depth of learning and engagement through actively utilising LEO.   

Assessment strategy and rationale

The assessment strategy is designed to assess knowledge, skills and understanding in a specialist area of law required for accreditation.  

The assessment tasks for this unit are designed to demonstrate achievement of each of the learning outcomes listed.  

Overview of assessments

Representative texts and references.

G E Dal Pont, Lawyers’ Professional Responsibility (Thomson, 7th ed, 2020)  

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• News & Events
• Press Releases

Santa Clara Law Celebrates Commencement

Speaker Vernā Myers addressing the Santa Clara Law Class of 2024

SANTA CLARA, Calif. , May 18, 2024— Santa Clara University School of Law celebrated the graduation of its Class of 2024, with reminders that the law can be wielded in pursuit of compassion, dismantling of injustice, and building communities of kindness.    “It is never too late to ask, 'What will your legacy be? What will you do to usher in the Beloved Community? Who will be the beneficiaries of your work?'” said speaker Vernā Myers , a lawyer, author, and diversity and inclusion pioneer, to the 211 graduates.

The school’s 113th commencement ceremony took place Saturday, May 18, in the University’s Leavey Center. University President Julie Sullivan reminded the graduates that their Jesuit-based legal education is vitally needed in the world today, to humanely confront complex ethical and societal problems. “My charge to you is this,” she said. “Do not forget the Jesuit mission, values, and context of your education—and don’t forget why it matters.” 

Currently vice president for inclusion strategy at Netflix, commencement speaker Myers is a sought-after inclusion strategist, cultural innovator, thought leader,  and social commentator. Her TED talk on overcoming biases has been viewed over 5 million times and translated into 27 languages. Her course, Confronting Biases, was recognized as one of the top ten LinkedIn Learning courses in 2021 and has been taken by over half a million learners. 

Raised in Baltimore’s working class, Myers became a Harvard-trained lawyer and founder of The Vernā Myers Company. She authored two best-selling books published by the American Bar Association: “Moving Diversity Forward: Going from Well-Meaning to Well-Doing” and “What If I Say The Wrong Thing? 25 Habits for Culturally Effective People.” 

During her speech, Myers referenced the life and sacrifice of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and asked the graduates “What miracles would you like to see? And what are you willing to do so that more people can experience the exuberant gladness of the new age? 

She noted that in deciding on clients to represent and which cases to pursue, graduates may have to decide between “propping up the status quo of inequity and injustice,” and “fighting mightily for the rule of law, the rights of the dispossessed and opening doors… creating opportunities for those who have been excluded and underrepresented. “ 

The stakes are especially high now, said Myers, who received an honorary doctor of law degree during the ceremony. 

“You are going out into a world where some people have forgotten that the only way forward is forward, not backward,” she said. “We are seeing the retrenchment of rights, assault against diversity, equity and inclusion, book banning, disregard for the rule of law, losing our reproductive rights, and a willingness to retreat from our country’s founding tenets of freedom, equality, and democracy that admittedly, we have been struggling to realize for hundreds of years.”

The law school’s Dean Michael Kaufman similarly reminded the graduates of the words of Pope Francis, to always grow, not only in impact and responsibility, but also in tenderness, and “acts of loving kindness.”

Such acts “are indispensable to your own happiness and well-being (and) critical to your professional success,” he said. “They distinguish merely good attorneys from exceptional attorneys like you all are about to become.”

About the Santa Clara Law Class of 2024

• 43.6% male, 56.4% female
• 59.27% identify as Black, Latiné/x, and other non-white
• 50 earned certificates in various areas of high tech law, including Privacy Law Certificates and Tech Edge J.D.
• 18 earned certificates in public interest and social justice law:
• 5 earned certificates in international law
• 4 earned combined J.D./MBA degrees
• 2 earned master’s degrees in U.S. law for foreign lawyers
• 1 earned LL.M. degree in intellectual property law

Among the awards presented to graduates prior to the ceremony: 

• Kiran Mahendra Sutaria received the Mabie Award for the Outstanding Graduate, Santa Clara Law’s highest academic honor, for academic performance, scholarly activities, leadership, and service roles at the law school and in the community.
• Sixteen graduates received the Deans’ Outstanding Student Leadership Award for exemplifying Santa Clara Law’s mission of leadership, ethics, professionalism, respect, and service on behalf of classmates, clients, and the community. Recipients were Garrett Parker Clark , Eamon M. Condon , Jason Yasin Cowan , Maria P. Luzardo Figueredo , Alisha Hacker , Marisa Anne Hawley , Chelsey Jordan , Molly Lara Karasick , Rebeca Beverly Kinslow , Julianna Major , Kyle Anthony Perkins , Nicole M. Poirot , Sabreen Noel Ben Salem , Alexia Giselle Torres , Karina Vals , Maria Elaine Williams
• Leor V. Chechik received the John B. Bates Jr., Dispute Resolution Award,  given in recognition of dispute-resolution-related coursework, publications, performance, and service.
• Connor Thomas Haney received the Art Gemmell Prize, for best paper on International Arbitration/Conflict Resolution.

About Santa Clara University School of Law Santa Clara University School of Law, one of the nation’s most diverse law schools, is dedicated to educating lawyers who lead with a commitment to excellence, ethics, and social justice. Santa Clara Law offers students an academically rigorous program including certificates in high tech law, international law, public interest and social justice law, and privacy law, as well as numerous graduate and joint degree options, including the Flex J.D., a hybrid part-time program. Located in the heart of Silicon Valley, Santa Clara Law is nationally distinguished for its faculty engagement, preparation for practice, and top-ranked programs in intellectual property. For more information, see law.scu.edu.

Media Contact Deborah Lohse | SCU Media Communications | [email protected] | 408-554-5121