Regulating Lawyers Through Disciplinary Systems

This book offers comparative analyses on issues in lawyer regulation in England and Wales, Japan, Myanmar, New Zealand and Singapore. It examines the lawyer disciplinary systems in different jurisdictions through diverse and comparative perspectives. In addition to enriching the literature on legal ethics, contributions also highlight areas for future research regarding the legal and other professions in different jurisdictions and the methodologies that may be applied. Chapters examine common issues faced by lawyer disciplinary systems throughout the world, such as: transparency of regulatory outcomes, which varies widely and provides challenges to assessing the effectiveness of lawyer regulatory systems whether systems tilt too much toward protecting lawyers and if a move from self-regulation to independent regulators yields better outcomes changes in demographics of the legal profession and regulatory changes posing challenges in longitudinal studies of regulatory systems disciplining of repeat actors raising questions of the deterrence goals of a regulatory system deviation of systems that maintain tight state control over the legal profession from both United Nations and other international norms for lawyer discipline the role of pro bono obligations and the discourse around legal ethics Regulating Lawyers Through Disciplinary Systems will be an invaluable resource for scholars, practitioners and regulators of the legal profession, while also appealing to those interested in legal and other professional ethics. This book was originally published as a special issue of the International Journal of the Legal Profession.

This book offers comparative analyses on issues in lawyer regulation in England and Wales, Japan, Myanmar, New Zealand and Singapore. It examines the lawyer disciplinary systems in different jurisdictions through diverse and comparative perspectives. In addition to enriching the literature on legal ethics, contributions also highlight areas for future research regarding the legal and other professions in different jurisdictions and the methodologies that may be applied. Chapters examine common issues faced by lawyer disciplinary systems throughout the world, such as: transparency of regulatory outcomes, which varies widely and provides challenges to assessing the effectiveness of lawyer regulatory systems whether systems tilt too much toward protecting lawyers and if a move from self-regulation to independent regulators yields better outcomes changes in demographics of the legal profession and regulatory changes posing challenges in longitudinal studies of regulatory systems disciplining of repeat actors raising questions of the deterrence goals of a regulatory system deviation of systems that maintain tight state control over the legal profession from both United Nations and other international norms for lawyer discipline the role of pro bono obligations and the discourse around legal ethics Regulating Lawyers Through Disciplinary Systems will be an invaluable resource for scholars, practitioners and regulators of the legal profession, while also appealing to those interested in legal and other professional ethics. This book was originally published as a special issue of the International Journal of the Legal Profession.

Annotated Standards for Imposing Lawyer Sanctions, Second Edition is an essential resource, presenting an authoritative and practical analysis of the cases and other legal authorities essential to understanding the application of the black letter Standards.

Parker and Evans's Inside Lawyers' Ethics provides a practical and engaging introduction to ethical decision-making in legal practice in Australia. Underpinned by four theoretical concepts – adversarial advocacy, responsible lawyering, moral activism and ethics of care – this text analyses legal and professional frameworks, highlighting relevant parts of the Australian Solicitors' Conduct Rules. Case studies and discussion questions offer contemporary, practical examples of the application of ethics. The book also addresses the challenge of ethical action and offers techniques to deal with ethical conflicts.This edition has been comprehensively updated and discusses the implications of advances in legal technology, mental ill-health in the profession and the complexities of government legal practice. A new chapter covers lawyers' ethical obligation to address the legal challenges posed by climate change. Written by an expert author team, Parker and Evans's Inside Lawyers' Ethics empowers readers to identify ethical challenges and resolve them through good decision-making practices.

The study of legal ethics and the legal profession has emerged as a distinct and important field of scholarship over the last 30 years. However, as in other disciplines, academic recognition can in turn entrench static and powerful meta-theories and narratives about professional ethos and practise, this collection seeks to disrupt this homogenising impulse and to present alternative voices by bringing together a range of international scholars writing about legal ethics and the legal profession. The book features significant and timely contributions which take contemporary and non-mainstream perspectives on the current and future shape of the legal profession. The essays not only describe the rapidly changing profession but canvas different approaches to scholarship on the legal profession. The collection seeks to explore a diverse and contextualised profession from a number of angles. Authors examine how the public sees lawyers and how lawyers see their own profession; how we practise law and how this practice shapes lawyers; how such cultural and professional practice intersects with institutional structures of the law to create certain legal outcomes; and how we regulate the legal profession to modify or institute ethical practice. The volume provides insights into legal culture and ethics from the perspective of authors from Australia, Canada, England, the United States, New Zealand and Kenya – a diversity of national perspectives that give valuable insights into developments in the profession at the local and global level. It also illustrates diversity within the profession by tracing differing professional career trajectories based on raced or gendered barriers, alternative ethical strategies and the impact of organisational cultures in which lawyers practice.

Unhappy clients bring thousands of legal malpractice claims every year, against mega law firms and solo practitioners, for simple errors or egregious misconduct, and for losses than can reach $100 million or more. This in an industry, legal services, generating nearly $300 billion a year in revenue and touching every facet of American society. Yet, scant if any scholarly attention has been paid to the questions and consequences of lawyers' professional liability. This book is the first to fully explore the mistakes lawyers sometimes make, the nature of these mistakes, the harm they do, and the significant disparities in outcomes for corporate and individual victims of lawyers' errors. A systematic, empirical study of legal malpractice, When Lawyers Screw Up employs both quantitative and qualitative methods to examine the frequency and nature of claims, the area of practice producing them, the amounts at stake, and the resolutions. The authors also use a range of data sources to study the frequency and outcomes of legal malpractice trials, whether bench or jury. Their comparison of legal malpractice cases involving the corporate and personal service sectors reveal the difficulties confronting claims coming from the personal sector—difficulties that often deny victims redress, even when they have suffered significant harm. When Lawyers Screw Up draws on a series of interviews to describe the practices of lawyers with expertise in handling legal malpractice claims, even as it notes how few such experts are available to prosecute these claims. In light of their findings, the authors suggest a range of reforms that would help victims of legal malpractice, particularly individuals and small businesses, in pursuing their claims.

Regulation of Lawyers, Statutes and Standards, Concise Edition, 2019