Legal Professions Flashcards
Lecture 3
Which characteristics are required of professions? (trait theory)
- Occupation
- Body of knowledge
- Training
- Theory
- Licensing
- Ethics/code of conduct
What features are included for Barristers?
- 4 Inns of court - Middle & Inner Temple, Gray’s and Lincolns (!4th/15th century)
- Collegial -> training, scholarships, etc
- They “call to the Bar” (Inns call you to bar you belong to)
- Dining sessions
What are the key features of the adversary trial?
- Lawyers control the process and courtroom
- Basely largely on witness evidence
- Lawyers act as partisan advocate of client’s interests
- Advocates develop technique of spelling out case through questions (cannot address jury)
- Prosecution must provide specific charges
What can we learn from Erskine’s claims and independence?
- Erskine asserts the right of the advocate to stand up to judge who thinks he is wrong on behalf of the client
- Idea: barrister and profession separate from the state and its interests
What are the two conduct rules that capture the ethos of barristers as fearless defenders of citizens’ rights?
- Cab rank: “any belief or opinion which you may have formed as to the character, reputation, cause, conduct, guilt, or innocence of the client”
- Loyalty: “promote and protect fearlessly and by all proper and lawful means his lay client’s best interests”
What is the history surrounding the role of solicitors?
- Attorneys, solicitors, proctors and other groups are unregulated
- 1739 Gentleman Practices in Courts of Law and Equity Formed
- 1831 Royal Charter granted, constituted The Law Society (body responsible for regulating solicitors)
For private practice, what do solicitors do?
- Advise and assist on legal matters
- First point of contract for people & bodies seeking legal advice
- Work in offices (member of department)
- Paid a salary
For private practice, what do barristers do?
- Offer advice on legal issues
- Represent clients in court
- Receive their information/instructions from a client’s solicitor
- Work in chambers
- Self-employed (but contribute to chambers’ overheads)
What are features of legal exeutives?
- Formed in 1892 (Solicitors Managing Clerks Association), became CILEx in 2012
- 20,000 members (paralegals, legal professionals, qualified Chartered Legal Executive Lawyers)
- Most accessible route (open to those holding GCSES, A levels or degree)
What does Public Service mean?
- Linking to public duty
- Duties owed to society in general rather than to specific individuals (e.g., clients or third parties)
What mechanisms are involved of professional regulation?
- FORUM: institutional controls operating in the relevant practice forum (e.g., courts)
- DISCIPLINE: controls exercised by legal professions under the supervision of courts
- LIABILITY: controls (e.g., negligence claims)
- LEGISLATIVE: controls operated by administrative agencies
The Office of Fair Trading Competition in the Professions (2001) and the Government consultation paper: In the Public Interests (2002) led to the Legal Services Act 2007. What were the main outcomes?
- Establish new legal services regulatory with statutory objectives
- Prescribe regulatory powers vested by the Legal Services Board, but devolved to other frontline bodies
- Separation of frontline bodies regulatory & representative functions of professions
- New Office for Legal Complaints
- Alternative business structures (ABS) for non-lawyers to manage
Under the Legal Services Act 2007 s12(1) and ‘reserved legal activity’, what does this mean specifically as a lawyer?
a) exercise of a right of audience
b) conduct of litigation
c) reserved instrument activities
d) probate activities
e) notarial activities
f) administration of oaths
What are some of the professional principles under the Legal Services Act 2007?
- Behave with independence and integrity
- Maintain proper standards of work
- Act in the best interests of their clients
- Act with independence in the interests of justice
- Comply and observe duty to court
- Keep affairs of clients confidential
Provide critiques of the SQE exams being imposed.
- Barristers’ pathway now more demanding
- Solicitors no longer have a common liberal education (i.e., university)
- May devalue qualification
- Profession seen as ‘two tier’
