Professional Conduct and Ethics in Interpretation Practice
Domain 6 - Professional Conduct and Ethics in Interpretation Practice
This domain tests the ethical duties that arise when you advise on ambiguous deeds or statutes, draft instruments, and present a construction to a court or registry. Competence, candour and confidentiality are not soft extras; they shape the advice you can give.
Core duties
A practitioner must act competently and diligently: know the statute, the deed formalities, the registration consequences and the client’s commercial objective. Confidentiality protects client information, but it does not authorise misleading a court or registry. A lawyer must not knowingly misstate the law or facts, must correct an inadvertent misleading statement, and must not draft or amend an instrument to conceal a fraud, backdate a document, or defeat a third party’s registered interest. Conflicts of interest must be identified and managed; acting for both lender and borrower, or for both parties to a conveyance, requires independent advice and informed consent where permitted. Undertakings are binding and must be honoured. Ghana’s Legal Profession Act 1960 (Act 32) and Legal Profession (Professional Conduct and Etiquette) Rules 1969 (LI 613) supply the professional framework.
Worked example
A client asks you to draft a deed of assignment that omits a tenant’s occupation so that a mortgagee will lend without inquiry. You explain that omitting a known occupier’s interest could mislead the lender and facilitate a priority dispute. You may draft a deed that accurately records the transaction and advise on obtaining a waiver or vacant possession, but you must not conceal the occupation. If the client insists, you decline and consider whether disclosure is required. Your duty to the court and to the integrity of the registry outweighs the client’s instruction.
Traps
Do not confuse confidentiality with a duty to conceal. Do not assume an “aggressive” construction is ethical if it rests on a misleading factual premise. Do not act for both sides of a conveyance without proper safeguards. Do not give an undertaking you cannot control. Do not ignore anti-money-laundering and registration duties. Do not let a junior’s drafting error go uncorrected.