The Virtuous Lawyer’s Ethics Alarms Tune-Up: 6 Professionalism Challenges

In 1972, the Model Rules of Professional Conduct, later to be adopted in some form by all U.S. jurisdictions, was barely a speck in the American Bar Association’s (ABA) eye. 50 years later, the old Code is gone and forgotten, but the legal ethical dilemmas it had failed to solve have either persisted or been replaced with new ones. For as the legal profession develops and evolves, so do legal ethics quandaries, and the ones that linger are important—and even perilous. Dealing with these enduring challenges for the ethical legal practitioner requires more than simply having a copy of the local Rules of Professional Conduct handy. For the rules do not and cannot be followed like a cookbook when problems arise that land squarely in the misty areas of legal practice and human experience. These dilemmas and challenges require more than legal ethics alone; they require a mastery of professionalism, defined as “conduct consistent with the tenets of the legal profession as demonstrated by a lawyer's civility, honesty, integrity, character, fairness, competence, ethical conduct, public service, and respect for the rule of law, the courts, clients, other lawyers, witnesses, and unrepresented parties.”

This program is intended for attorneys at all levels who want to hone their skills at recognizing these critical situations when they arise, and to enhance their skill at handling them effectively, competently, and in the best traditions of their profession.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the important interaction among legal ethics rules, basic ethical systems and ethical values in the practice of law
• Acquire new and useful tools and techniques for identifying legal ethics problems before they arise and avoiding impediments to legal professionalism
• Through consideration and discussion of challenging hypothetical situations based on actual cases, practice the employment of those tools and techniques