Legal ethics and professional responsibility
Legal ethics and professional responsibility
This domain tests the lawyer's duties to clients, courts, and the profession. The exam rewards identifying the duty, the exception, and the required action.
Core rules
- Confidentiality covers all information learned in the professional relationship; it survives termination. Exceptions include client consent, prevention of serious crime, and legal compulsion.
- Privilege is narrower than confidentiality: it protects confidential communications for legal advice or litigation, not facts the client knows.
- Conflicts of interest require disclosure, informed consent, and sometimes withdrawal; a lawyer cannot represent opposing parties in the same matter.
- Competence and diligence require the knowledge, preparation, and communication a reasonable lawyer would provide.
- Client funds must be kept separately and accounted for; fees must be reasonable and disclosed.
- Candor to the court limits advocacy: no false statements, no concealment of adverse authority where required, and no coaching false evidence.
Worked example
A lawyer represents two co-defendants whose defences conflict: one says the other acted alone. The lawyer must not continue without informed consent and a reasonable belief of loyal representation. Because the conflict is material and non-consentable in practice, the lawyer withdraws from both, protects confidentiality, and seeks leave of the court.
Traps
Equating confidentiality with privilege; disclosing client information to family; treating withdrawal as abandonment; accepting a fee without scope; using client funds for office expenses.