Standards slipping
Law students and lawyers may need to engage more with ethics as part of their training if proposals from the super-regulator move forward.
The Legal Services Board’s new consultation paper builds on its research into lawyer conduct, including concerns about misleading courts, the use of strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs), misused NDAs, and issues arising from the Post Office Horizon scandal. Targeted at law schools, universities, lawyers, firms, and chambers, the proposals aim to strengthen legal ethics amid growing concerns over declining professional standards.
The LSB identified examples of poor conduct, largely describing them as “symptomatic of the pre-qualification education and training, and the codes of conduct of the regulators”.
Poor conduct is grouped in the paper, from “ethical apathy” and “creative compliance” all the way to “severe, intentional and even criminal conduct”.
The super-regulator raised other issues including “academic malpractice such as cheating or giving false evidence during professional qualification examinations” as a worrying indicator for ethics in aspiring and qualified lawyers.
Examples showed lawyers’ undermining the rule of law and harming the public interest but also wasting judicial resources and exploiting power imbalances, especially where the case includes litigants in person.
In the paper, LSB CEO Craig Westwood said:
“[W]e cannot take professional ethics for granted. The challenges facing legal professionals are complex and evolving… [the paper] represents a significant step forward in our long-term vision: a legal profession in which every lawyer has a deep understanding of their professional ethical duties and the confidence to uphold them effectively.”
Westwood added that “regulation alone cannot achieve this vision: it must form part of a holistic approach that will transform workplace and leadership culture”.
The consultation closes on 29 May.
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