Getting value from ethics CPD
Ethics is at the heart of the legal profession, and ethical lawyers are fundamental to public trust and confidence in the legal system. As you progress through your career, you will encounter new challenges and ethical dilemmas alongside an evolving legal profession. By investing in your professional development and choosing ethics CPD activities that are relevant and helpful to you in your stage of your professional journey, you can ensure you get the most out of your CPD year.
To help you in reflecting on your ethical development needs, we have prepared reflective self-assessment tools for early-career, mid-career, and senior lawyers. These tools are intended to assist you to evaluate where things are going well and identify areas for improvement, and give you some ideas about how to address those areas as part of your CPD. You can access the self-assessment questionnaires at the bottom of each slide below.
We hope you use these self-assessment tools to keep track of where you are and to take your ethics CPD to the next level.
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Ethics is the cornerstone of the legal profession. When a lawyer’s ethics and competence are brought into question, it damages the reputation of the profession and can undermine public trust and confidence in the justice system.
Behaving ethically is so much more than just knowing the rules, knowing what is right or being a good person or lawyer.
Having started your legal career, you should seek to establish the ethical practices, skills and knowledge that will set you up for a successful and healthy relationship with the profession you have worked so hard to join.
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Ethics is the cornerstone of the legal profession. When a lawyer’s ethics and competence are brought into question, it damages the reputation of the profession and can undermine public trust and confidence in the justice system.
Behaving ethically is so much more than just knowing the rules, knowing what is right or being a good person or lawyer.
Having progressed to the mid-point of your career, you should already have an understanding of the importance of ethics in your practice. You may have also had the opportunity to observe lawyers whose ethics and professionalism you admire and want to emulate.
This is a good time to consider how you are going to structure your continuing professional development (CPD) activities to ensure that you remain alive to the ethical issues in legal practice, and are able to deal with them effectively.
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Ethics is the cornerstone of the legal profession. When a lawyer’s ethics and competence are brought into question, it damages the reputation of the profession and can undermine public trust and confidence in the justice system.
Behaving ethically is so much more than just knowing the rules, knowing what is right or being a good person or lawyer.
As a senior lawyer, you should already be well aware that adherence to high ethical standards is critical to maintaining public confidence in the profession and your good reputation. You are likely now at a point in your career where you routinely exercise ‘designated responsibility’ over a matter, supervise others, and take or share significant responsibility for the culture and standards of both your immediate team and the wider organisation.
These responsibilities can bring with them significant work, life stresses and ethical challenges. It is therefore imperative that you review your ethical radar and leadership skills, to ensure you are able to maintain your integrity and, where relevant, the integrity of your organisation.