Legal Ethics 733532
Subject Objectives
On completion of this subject, students should:
- understand the main ethical theories relevant to legal ethics and be sensitive to considerations which are relevant to ethical thinking and decision-making.
- be able to apply different ethical approaches to legal ethics to various fact scenarios
- understand and critically analyse the way that lawyers’ ethics and conduct are regulated in Australia (particularly Victoria), including through disciplinary processes
- know the professional conduct standards and general law that regulate lawyers, including those relating to conflicts of interest, confidentiality and duties owed to the client, and be able to apply them to fact scenarios
- be able to identify conduct and ethical issues that arise in legal practice in particular situations, be able to identify the different ways in which they could be resolved, and the arguments for and against those different resolutions
- be able to identify situations in which professional conduct standards and the general law conflict with one another or provide insufficient guidance about what the law expects or allows a lawyer to do
- be able to decide on, explain and justify the way in which they personally would resolve ethical issues in particular situations
- be able to identify and explain what practical actions they would need to take to carry out that resolution in a practical situation
- be respectful of other points of view as to how ethical issues should be resolved
- be able to critically evaluate aspects of the practice of law, including practice setting (eg large law firms, inhouse counsel), the lawyers’ monopoly over legal practice, advocates’ immunity, admission requirements and the ban on contingency fees may impact on a lawyer’s ethical approach and the legal profession’s contribution to justice
- understand and be able to practise the principles of trust accounting
- have the capacity to engage in constructive professional and public discourse and to speak out against prejudice, injustice and the abuse of power
