Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility R. Cranston (Ed.) Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1995 Legal Ethics and Legal Practice: Contemporary Issues S. Parker & S. Sampford (Eds.) Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1995

Taking lawyers’ ethics seriously

Jurisdictions around the world are regulating and re-regulating legal professions, including the common law countries, where legal professionalism has traditionally been strong. In the UK, the 2007 Legal Services Act (LSA) represents a significant watershed, one that might have signaled the death of legal professionalism. In the event the LSA created a Legal Services Board (LSB) to oversee regulation of the legal services market within a framework of statutory goals, including promotion of an independent, strong, diverse and effective legal profession. Rather than rationalizing the professions or abolishing their organizational and normative structures, the LSA promises to enshrine professional aspirations and principles in legislation while tightening control of professional bodies, influencing the professional agenda and shaping the market though competition. This article traces the processes by which the LSA is redefining the professions and professionalism in England and Wales and critical factors; the construction and organization of professional work, reconstruction of the regulatory system, adjustments in regulatory method and the implications for education and training strategies. The article concludes that the LSA establishes relationships and processes that will undermine aspects of traditional professionalism and indicates ways in which the legal professions might mitigate some of these impacts.

Professionalism Under the Legal Services Act 2007

Differences in the working lives of solicitors have become increasingly marked in recent years. Growing numbers of lawyers are employed in the public and corporate sectors and, with the increasing size and wealth of City of London commercial firms, there are significant differences between these firms and those 'high-street' firms that serve local communities. These differences impact on lawyers throughout training and beyond, both in terms of rites of passage into the profession and in conditions of employment. This research, the final stage in a longitudinal survey spanning the 1990s, combines quantitative and qualitative methods to explore the reactions of newly qualified solicitors to their work. Building on the project's previous surveys, which charted the nature of disadvantage suffered by many prospective entrants to the legal profession, the research finds a large measure of satisfaction regarding careers. It also identifies causes for concern, including increasing specialisation in legal education and the potential separation of the intrinsic and extrinsic rewards of professional practice.

Career paths and choices in a highly differentiated profession: the position of newly qualified solicitors

The Legal Services Act 2007 represents an ambitious attempt to reconcile consumerism and professionalism. The Act created a Legal Services Board to oversee the regulation of the legal services market in England and Wales. The Board was also placed under a duty to promote consumer interests and to encourage an independent, strong, diverse and effective legal profession and to promote professional principles. The article examines the actual and prospective impacts of the Act on the legal professions, professional work, the regulatory system, regulatory method, professional ethics and legal education. It identifies threats posed to traditional conceptions of legal professionalism by the new regime and suggests ways that they might be mitigated.

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Professionalism under the Legal Services Act 2007

This paper applies Marx' theory of alienation to the work of criminal legal aid lawyers to suggest that the lawyers might be best understood as alienated workers. It reports findings from an ethnographic study of the lawyer-client relationship in England and Wales whereby lawyers were seen to take a diminished professional role characterised by the routine processing of guilty pleas wherein lawyers lost respect for themselves as well as the clients they worked for. The concept of alienation is put forward as a valuable analytical tool for understanding this vision of a substandard legal practice, which may have potential for moving forward future debates on whether the lawyer-client relationship serves access to justice and, if not, how it might be improved to better do so.

Are Lawyers Alienated Workers

The tension between the conception of professionalism as a device for maintaining control over the market for legal services' and as an ethical commitment2 is a theme pervading analysis of the legal profession. In recent years the integration of these strands of the professional ideal has been threatened by encroachment on professional privileges, such as monopoly and self regulation, and by the economic pressures unleashed by deregulation and competition in the market for legal services. It has been suggested that the relationship of the legal profession to society is undergoing a renegotiation,3 part of which inevitably concerns the profession's commitment to public service. This article analyses the results of a survey of the legal services provided pro bono publico by members of large firms of solicitors in England and Wales and through the data explores the relationship between the economic and the normative dimension of professionalism. We argue that some large firms are attempting to reinvigorate the ethos of professionalism in the practice of law and are exploring new ways in which their public service responsibility can be conceived and met. We have not addressed here the issue of whether or not the legal profession should provide voluntary legal services, nor do we consider which kinds of provision would be in the interests of the public, the profession or society generally.4 Our thesis in this

Moral Agendas? Pro Bono Publico in Large Law Firms in the United Kingdom

This report explores lawyers' perceptions surrounding the provision of advocacy services. It is based on a community wide study of lawyers in London consisting in two parts: first, in-depth interviews with solicitors and barristers active in the corporate field, immigration, personal injury and criminal defence; secondly, a survey of London solicitors and barristers, based on telephone interviews. Overall, this report presents the results of the first ever qualitative study in this area.

Reconfiguring the Market for Advocacy Services A Case Study of London and Four Fields of Practice

(1995). The provision of free legal services by solicitors: A review of the report of the Law Society's Pro Bono Working Party. International Journal of the Legal Profession: Vol. 2, No. 2-3, pp. 261-280.

Robert Abbey

Papers

Moral Agendas? Pro Bono Publico in Large Law Firms in the United Kingdom

Reconfiguring the Market for Advocacy Services A Case Study of London and Four Fields of Practice

The provision of free legal services by solicitors: A review of the report of the Law Society's Pro Bono Working Party