Tag Archives: professional ethics

“Are you proud to be a lawyer?”

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Once, this was not a difficult question to answer.  When I became a barrister in 1977, my answer would have been immediate and unequivocal.  Like many of my generation, I was the first in the family to go to university; and then to gain a legal qualification was a matter of great pride.

But, almost 50 years on, things are different.  Lawyers are no longer held in such high esteem (either collectively or, often, individually); media stories abound of lawyers who are said to have ‘crossed an ethical line’; and the public brush of concern tars everyone.  I find the question more difficult (and, to some degree, uncomfortable) these days.

So is current sentiment just an enhanced reflection of longstanding animosity towards the profession collectively?  Is this tide irreversible?  I’d like to think so, but it may not be easy. Continue reading →

Ongoing competence: the LSB’s mission impossible?

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Since January 2020, the Legal Services Board (LSB) has been on a mission: to require front-line regulators to assure themselves of the competence of their regulated practitioners throughout their careers.  It issued a call for evidence, commissioned reports, and consulted* on its proposals.  The process has now resulted in a new statutory statement of policy intended to ensure that regulators “have appropriate frameworks for continuing assurance of professional competence throughout the careers of the people they regulate”.  Consequently, “consumers should be able to trust that legal professionals have the necessary skills, knowledge and attributes to provide good quality legal services and that they are kept up to date and relevant over time”.

It is impossible to argue against the good intentions here.  But, regrettably, the mission is impossible; both the consequential cost and burden of it to the regulated community (and ultimately to consumers) are disproportionate; the evidence does not support it; and, for me, it is therefore an unwelcome example of inappropriate regulation.

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Regulation: from infection to inflection point

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Here is a fascinating podcast: a conversation between Jordan Furlong (guest) and Professor Mike Madison of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law (host) on the future of law, re-regulation, access to justice, and the rule of law. Over many years, Jordan has perfected the gift of identifying nails in the legal services sector and then hitting each of them firmly on the head. This episode has a good number of those nails. In this post, I pick up on some of the themes it explores.

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