DEFINITION
- Legal Ethics is the term used to describe a code of conduct that prescribes proper behavior and establishes the nature of obligations owed to individuals and to society. Ethics generally has legal implications only when business interactions with professionals are involved.
- Professional Responsibility is the term used to describe a professional's obligation to comply with rules of professional conduct. Professional responsibilities include concepts of morality, ethics, etiquette, and professional values and attitudes. Issues of professional responsibility often arise in the legal profession, which is subject to a formal and detailed code of ethics and responsibility.
- Legal Malpractice occurs when an attorney fails to perform according to the standards and codes of ethical and professional conduct that all attorneys must adhere to -- in dealing with clients, other attorneys, courts, and other entities. An essential aspect of a legal mapractice case is that the attorney's failure to meet his or her professional obligations resulted in some sort of harm, usually to his or her client's case.
- In the legal profession, attorneys must abide by the Rules of Professional Conduct. Adopted by the American Bar Association in 1983, the Rules provide comprehensive treatment of professional conduct as to what an attorney may and may not do in dealing with the court, opposing counsel, his or her client and third persons.
- These Rules, which replace the former ABA Code of Professional Responsibility, have been adopted by many states (usually by the state supreme court) to govern conduct of attorneys admitted to practice in the state.
FIND AN ETHICS & PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY LAWYER IN YOUR AREA.
RELATED PRACTICE AREAS
Legal Malpractice
Insurance Law
White Collar Crime
BUZZWORDS
Commingling - Act of fiduciary in mingling funds of his beneficiary, client, employer, or ward with his own funds. Such act is generally considered to be a breach of his fiduciary relationship. May be applied to lawyer who mixes client's funds with his own and as a result is subject to disciplinary action under the Rules of Professional Conduct.
Confidentiality - The relation between lawyer and client which guarantees any information shared by the client is treated as private and as such cannot be divulged to third parties without the client's consent.
Escrow - A system of document transfer in which a deed, bond, stock, funds, or other property is delivered to a third person to hold until all conditions in a contract are fulfilled.
Ethics - Duties or conduct relating to moral action, motive or character.
Fiduciary - One who owes to another the highest duty of care, good faith, trust, confidence and candor based on their relationship.
Retainer - In the practice of law, when a client hires an attorney to represent him or her, the client is said to have retained the attorney. This act of employment, usually with an initial fee, is called the retainer.
Retainer Agreement - A contract between the client and attorney sets forth the nature of services to be performed, costs, expenses, and related matters.
PRACTICE AREA NOTES
- Every practicing attorney is bound by a code of conduct called professional responsibility or professional conduct. New attorneys must attend a mandatory course on the subject of legal ethics and pass a rigorous exam (MPRE) in order to be eligible to take the bar exam.
- A lawyer's professional responsibilities are set forth in the ABA rules, state bar association rules, as well as in substantive and procedural law. However, a lawyer is also guided by personal conscience and a respect for the law as an officer of the court.
- All lawyer jokes aside, it is imperative for an attorney to abide by these rules or face disciplinary action and/or possible disbarment.
