Legal Ethics and Professional Conduct: Rules Applied to Scenarios
Professional conduct is tested through scenarios, not recitation: the examiner wants the rule, the dilemma and the correct course of action. The governing text is the 1970 law organising the legal profession, applied by the Beirut and Tripoli Bar Associations.
Core duties
- Confidentiality is absolute and survives the end of the mandate and the client's death.
- Conflicts of interest: a lawyer may not act for both sides, nor against a former client in the same matter, even with consent where the conflict is structural.
- Financial integrity: client funds are held separately, fees are agreed transparently, and a results-only fee in a criminal matter is prohibited.
- Candour to the court: no knowingly false submissions, no coaching of false testimony, respect for the bench and for opposing counsel.
- Advertising is confined to dignified information; practising under a misleading name is barred.
Discipline
Complaints go to the Bar's disciplinary body; sanctions range from warning and reprimand to suspension and disbarment, with a right of appeal.
Worked example
A lawyer learns mid-case that his client's interests conflict with those of another client whose file his firm holds. He must not use the second client's confidences, he withdraws from the matter, informs both clients without disclosing protected information, and returns the file.
Traps
Thinking consent cures every conflict; assuming confidentiality ends with the mandate; accepting a criminal brief on a results-based fee; advertising through rankings and client testimonials; handling client money through the firm's operating account.