Professional Conduct and Ethics in Practice
This domain tests the Legal Profession (Professional Conduct and Etiquette) Rules 1969 (LI 613) and the general law of lawyering: the duties owed to the court, the client, the profession and third parties. Scenarios usually ask what you must do, what you must refuse, and what you must disclose.
The four duties
- Court: candour, no misleading of the bench, disclosure of adverse authorities, no private communication with the judge.
- Client: competence, diligence, confidentiality, loyalty and full accounting.
- Profession: integrity, no touting, no fee-sharing with unqualified persons, respect for opponents.
- Third parties: fairness, no communication about a matter with a party you know to be represented, without that party's lawyer's consent.
Confidentiality and privilege
Confidences continue after the retainer ends and after the client dies. Disclosure is permitted with informed client consent, where statute compels it, such as reporting obligations under the anti-money laundering framework, or to prevent imminent serious harm.
Conflicts of interest
Watch former-client conflicts, where you hold relevant confidential information from a substantially related matter; concurrent conflicts, where two clients are adverse; personal interests of the lawyer or a family member; and joint retainers, where you must withdraw if the joint clients fall out. Consent may cure some conflicts, but never where you hold the former client's confidences.
Worked example
You acted for A in a shareholder dispute over a family company. B, now adverse to A, asks you to sue A over the same shareholding. Reasoning: you hold A's confidential information from substantially the same matter, so you must decline. A Chinese wall is not sufficient where the same lawyers were involved, and A's consent cannot be assumed. Explain the conflict to B, return the documents and decline the instructions in writing.
Traps that cost marks
Discussing client matters with a spouse or at a social event. Acting where the lawyer or a relative has a financial interest. Preparing an affidavit and appearing as advocate when you are a material witness. Accepting a personal benefit from the opposing party.