Navigating Ethical Challenges: A Roadmap for Virtuous Lawyers

Too many lawyers regard the extent of their legal ethics awareness as encompassed by their jurisdiction’s Rules of Professional Conduct. Though understandable, an inconvenient truth must be faced: the ethics rules lag behind the reality of legal practice. Ethics is always evolving, and what we learn is ethical practice remains so whether the ethics rules have caught up or not. This is especially important to recognize in 2023, as changes wrought by the pandemic, encroaching societal issues, and practical realities are transforming society in dizzying ways…and where society goes, the profession of law must follow.

The greatest challenge is keeping abreast of developments that render old habits and assumptions not merely obsolete, but perilous to assume still apply. The Virtuous Lawyer’s Map of Legal Ethics Landmines will alert lawyer at all levels regarding five crucial aspects of practice that require special attention:

1. Legal practice integrity and the politicization of the law
2. The revolution in law firm structure
3. The conventional wisdom trap: when the Rules aren’t ethical enough
4. Informed Consent and Conflicts of Interest
5. The Skynet threat: Artificial intelligence and the law

This program is perfect for attorneys at all levels of practice.

Learning Objectives:

• Gain increased awareness of rapidly evolving areas involving legal ethics decisions and analysis
• Explore methods of recognizing dilemmas, threats and challenges these areas can generate
• Acquire tools, techniques, and routines that will minimize the dangers such situations present and learn to apply them