Legal ethics
Get on top of legal ethics.
Students often underestimate Legal Ethics. Results depend on the precise application of the conduct rules and a clear understanding of the paramount duty to the court, rather than on general intuition about the right outcome.
The challenge
Where students get stuck
The common difficulty is reasoning from a sense of the right answer without grounding it in a rule or authority. This leads students to overlook the duty to the court, which is paramount, and the duties to the client, including confidentiality and privilege, conflicts of interest both concurrent and successive, and the candour and trust account obligations. Where duties conflict, students often fail to resolve the conflict and simply prefer the sympathetic outcome.
How the method applies here
Each answer is grounded in a rule: name the duty in issue, state its source, apply it to the facts, then resolve any conflict by the hierarchy of duties, with the duty to the court first. Privilege, conflicts and confidentiality are where the hard cases sit.
The method
One method, every problem
Four steps run every argument: name the issue, state the rule, apply it to the facts, conclude. Almost every legal rule takes one of six shapes. Any of these six shapes may carry a twist. Learn the six shapes and the twist →
Common questions
Legal Ethics: common questions
Is this professional conduct?
Yes. The duties to the court and client, confidentiality and privilege, and conflicts.
I reason from what feels right. What fixes that?
Anchoring every answer to the rule and to the hierarchy of duties.
Related subjects: Disputes, Criminal Law & Procedure, Evidence & Proof. See all subjects.
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