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Chapter 5 LP - Short Notes

The document defines a legal profession as requiring central organizations, self-regulation, minimum training standards, and a duty to clients. It discusses regulation of legal professionals to increase confidence through independent oversight. Legal ethics guides professionals to act with integrity, honesty, and in clients' interests, prioritizing justice over other conflicts. The document outlines changes allowing alternative business structures, non-lawyer ownership of legal businesses, and the fusion of barrister and solicitor careers through technological advances and shared training requirements.

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Yugaleswari Manivannan
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29 views

Chapter 5 LP - Short Notes

The document defines a legal profession as requiring central organizations, self-regulation, minimum training standards, and a duty to clients. It discusses regulation of legal professionals to increase confidence through independent oversight. Legal ethics guides professionals to act with integrity, honesty, and in clients' interests, prioritizing justice over other conflicts. The document outlines changes allowing alternative business structures, non-lawyer ownership of legal businesses, and the fusion of barrister and solicitor careers through technological advances and shared training requirements.

Uploaded by

Yugaleswari Manivannan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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LEGAL PROFESSION

What is a legal profession?


The Royal Commission on Legal Services gave the following definition of a
profession:
- requires central organisations.
- Is self-regulated.
- has required minimum standards of training places significant importance
on duty to the client.
- involves the giving of the specialist advice.

REGULATION OF LEGAL PROFESSIONALS


Aim: Increase confidence in the professions by subjecting them to
independent regulation.

LEGAL ETHICS
Aim: A solicitor’s commitment to behaving ethically is at the heart of the
what it means to be a solicitor.
Ethics involves making a commitment to acting with integrity and honesty
in accordance with widely recognised moral principles.
Ethics will guide a professional towards an appropriate way to behave in
relation to moral dilemmas that arises in practice.
Ethics is based on the principles of serving the interests of consumers of
legal services and of acting in the services and of acting in the interests of
administration of justice in which the event of a conflict acting in the
interests of the administration of justice prevails.

SOLICITORS
Courts and Legal Services Act 1990
Access to Justice Act 1999

WOMEN AS SOLICITORS
Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919
Case: Bebb v Law Society 1914

BARRISTERS
Courts and Legal Services Act in 1990

WOMEN AS BARRISTERS
Equal numbers of men and women qualified to practice and 35% of
barristers are women.

CHANGES TO LEGAL SERVICE


The provisions of legal services has been changed substantially by the
Courts and Legal Service Act 1990 which:
Broke up monopolies in legal work to better serve users of legal services
provided for higher rights of audience for solicitors
Broke solicitors monopoly on conveying work by introducing licensed
conveyancers
Implemented elements of the Clementi report of 2004
Changed the way that the legal profession is regulated
Liberalised the provisions of legal services by allowing ‘alternative business
structures’.

ALTERNATIVE BUSINESS STRUCTURE


Before the Legal Services Act 2007, they were restrictions on the types of
business:
-Barristers and Solicitors could not operate from the same business.
-Lawyers were not allowed to enter partnership with other non-lawyers.
-Restrictions were places on non-lawyers being involved in the ownership
or management of legal businesses.
-Legal Practice could nor operate as companies.

THE LEGAL SERVICES ACT changed by following:


-Legal businesses to include lawyers and non-lawyers.
-Legal business to include barristers and non-solicitors.
-Non lawyers to own legal businesses.
-Legal businesses to operate as companies.
*A license must be applied from the Legal Service Board to set up ABS.

HAVE THE CHANGES FUSED THE TWO CAREERS?

THE LEGAL PROFESSION AND TECHNOLOGY


Law firm use technology from:
1) Retrieve publicly available data from public sources.
2) Increase the speed of review of large numbers of documents.
3) File legal documents online.
4) Use document automation.

LEGAL TRAINING: BARRISTERS


- Have to pass the Bar Professional Training Course (BBTC). Students study:
-Case preparation skills
-Written skills
-Opinion writing
-Drafting documents
-Conference skills
-Negotiation
-Advocacy

LEGAL TRAINING: SOLICITORS


-Graduate Diploma in Law
-Legal Practice Court

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