Legal Ethics
22 February 2012 - Ethical training for early career lawyers
Early career lawyers often face ethical dilemmas and are not aware of their ethical responsibilities or know how to handle them.
Practical Legal Ethics is a competency-based training module that provides hands-on practice at identifying and resolving various actual and potential ethical dilemmas, as well as the opportunity to explore and discuss ethical duties to clients, colleagues and the courts.
12 December 2011 - The dangers of deleting social media accounts
Senior Ethics Solicitor Stafford Shepherd warns of the dangers of suggesting to a client to “clean up” their Facebook page when the contents may be required in litigation or contemplated litigation. Read the full article - Duty to counsel against destruction of documents (PDF 121 KB).
10 November 2011 - Chief Justice address to the Joint Law Societies Ethics Forum
Address of The Hon Chief Justice Paul de Jersey AC on Monday 7 November 2011 at the opening of the Joint Law Societies Ethics Forum hosted by the QLS.
In his address the Chief Justice made observations as to the conduct of lawyers for litigants and the situations where a lawyer may be tempted to stray beyond ethical bounds.
Highlights from his Honour’s speech:
21 October 2011 - DVD release – Ethical Decision Making: A Legal Practitioners Guide
Legal ethics are principles and values which, along with common law and conduct rules, regulate a lawyer’s behaviour.
Based on a host of issues from every day legal practice, this DVD equips lawyers and their legal support staff with the information and practical tools to guide ethical conduct. Discover what ethics is, where it comes from, why it is important and how to approach common ethical problems.
29 September 2011 - The need for transparency in dealings with employers
A practitioner who maintained a secret client base while employed by a legal practice has been struck from the roll.
The Full Court of the Supreme Court of South Australia noted that public interest demands that practitioners behave properly and be accountable and if the Court tolerated behaviour of maintaining a secret client base then the profession would be brought into disrepute.
Having a secret client base is dishonest
The Full Court of the Supreme Court of South Australia in Legal Practitioners Conduct Board v Patterson [2011] SASCFC 102 struck from the roll a practitioner who had maintained a secret client base while employed by a legal practice.
That Ethics Guy says thanks and goodbye...for now.
Yes folks, after four years, two sets of conduct rules, hundreds of seminars and a lot of fun, it's time for me to hand over the QLS Centre for Lawyers' Ethics to others.
19 November 2010 - Law Society of NSW releases ethics guide for Government lawyers
Government lawyers, along with corporate counsel, make up a significant yet often neglected, part of the legal profession. They are also a group that face unique ethical situations largely because their client is also their employer.
The Law Society of NSW first produced has produced this helpful guide since 2003 and this new edition has updated and improved the content.
