Introduction:
Lawyers owe their duty to profession, the court, the state, the public and client. It is the client that
they must primary commit to through actng in their best interests and maintain confdentality.
According to Kronman, law is a profession and not a job, which has its own set of characteristcs.
According to Sciulli, the characteristcs of a profession includes specialist knowledge, autonomy,
social prestge, strict entry requirements, codes of ethics, fduciary duty, sense of vocaton, state
license and community interests. Professional ethics, according to Durkheim, includes moral
discipline which feed the needs of individual professional satsfacton. Otherwise, lawyers may get
out of control. In fact, professional ethics, according to Durkheim, are a developed from of
normatve system.
Norms:
Norm is a patern of behaviour: a characteristc beliefs of a community or a system. It is the standard
behaviour that is expected from a community. Social norms include the customs of a society,
whereas, professional norms include customs of the profession (for eg. In legal profession, the
expressive elitsm is a custom). Bayles determined four possibilites of professional norms, which
could be that:
1. Professional norms are the same as ordinary norms of behaviour, or
2. Professional norms specify how professionals must relate ordinary norms to any
circumstances, or
3. Professional norms account the role of the professional while applying the ordinary norms,
or
4. Professional norms are completely independent of ordinary norms
Relatng to the “independence from ordinary norms,, lawyers must be independent politcally and
from any other infuences in order to have autonomy and uphold the rule of law. To give this efect,
the standard concepton was developed.
Standard conception:
The standard concepton of a lawyer’s role was developed by US philosophers basing it on the
American bar associaton model code, case laws and other things. The concepton describes how to
approach clients and fulfl their dutes. The concepton has two principles—neutrality and
partsanship.
Principle of neutrality requires lawyers to present cases on behalf of those which are morally
disagreeable. For eg. Defending sexual ofenders. The basic nature of neutrality is that lawyers have
a duty to not to select their clients, even if they are criminals. This upholds civil rights of fair trial and
demonstrates the promise of toleratng diferences. The second nature of neutrality is that lawyers
must be emotonally detached from their client’s purpose. They only focus on the legalites of the
case and ofer impartal and objectve advice, regardless of the outcome of the litgaton. In England
and wales, the codes of conduct suggests litle engagement with standard concepton. English
barristers are obligated to accept brief instructons in areas they are practcing, so that there will be
no discriminaton in choosing cases. This is called the cab bank rule. Solicitors, however, don’t have
such duty to listen to any briefs. But they cant pick and choose clients unlawfully. Contrary to US
neutrality principle, the English implementaton isn’t anything like moral neutrality.
Lawyers owe their duty to profession, the court, the state, the public and client. It is the client that
they must primary commit to through actng in their best interests and maintain confdentality.
According to Kronman, law is a profession and not a job, which has its own set of characteristcs.
According to Sciulli, the characteristcs of a profession includes specialist knowledge, autonomy,
social prestge, strict entry requirements, codes of ethics, fduciary duty, sense of vocaton, state
license and community interests. Professional ethics, according to Durkheim, includes moral
discipline which feed the needs of individual professional satsfacton. Otherwise, lawyers may get
out of control. In fact, professional ethics, according to Durkheim, are a developed from of
normatve system.
Norms:
Norm is a patern of behaviour: a characteristc beliefs of a community or a system. It is the standard
behaviour that is expected from a community. Social norms include the customs of a society,
whereas, professional norms include customs of the profession (for eg. In legal profession, the
expressive elitsm is a custom). Bayles determined four possibilites of professional norms, which
could be that:
1. Professional norms are the same as ordinary norms of behaviour, or
2. Professional norms specify how professionals must relate ordinary norms to any
circumstances, or
3. Professional norms account the role of the professional while applying the ordinary norms,
or
4. Professional norms are completely independent of ordinary norms
Relatng to the “independence from ordinary norms,, lawyers must be independent politcally and
from any other infuences in order to have autonomy and uphold the rule of law. To give this efect,
the standard concepton was developed.
Standard conception:
The standard concepton of a lawyer’s role was developed by US philosophers basing it on the
American bar associaton model code, case laws and other things. The concepton describes how to
approach clients and fulfl their dutes. The concepton has two principles—neutrality and
partsanship.
Principle of neutrality requires lawyers to present cases on behalf of those which are morally
disagreeable. For eg. Defending sexual ofenders. The basic nature of neutrality is that lawyers have
a duty to not to select their clients, even if they are criminals. This upholds civil rights of fair trial and
demonstrates the promise of toleratng diferences. The second nature of neutrality is that lawyers
must be emotonally detached from their client’s purpose. They only focus on the legalites of the
case and ofer impartal and objectve advice, regardless of the outcome of the litgaton. In England
and wales, the codes of conduct suggests litle engagement with standard concepton. English
barristers are obligated to accept brief instructons in areas they are practcing, so that there will be
no discriminaton in choosing cases. This is called the cab bank rule. Solicitors, however, don’t have
such duty to listen to any briefs. But they cant pick and choose clients unlawfully. Contrary to US
neutrality principle, the English implementaton isn’t anything like moral neutrality.
