Legal ethics at the academic stage: exploring the issues

In March 2009 the Law Society of England and Wales published an important report by Kim Economides and Justine Rogers entitled Preparatory Ethics Training for Solicitors. Among the recommendations of this report was a call to make the teaching of ‘legal ethics’ a required part of the qualifying law degree. This call has been taken up by the Law Society, which is now conducting research into what is being taught at the undergraduate stage. Moreover, with a planned review of academic legal education by the Joint Academic Stage Board in 2011, debate about the nature and place of ethics in the academic curriculum could soon become of regulatory significance.

To encourage and inform that debate UKCLE hosted, in association with the Law Society, a day conference in London. Among the questions considered were

• Should ‘legal ethics’ be a (compulsory) part of the academic curriculum?
• What should be taught, how, and where?
• What are the resource implications for law schools?
• What are the current views of the professional regulatory bodies?

A short review of the Economides and Rogers report was published in the Spring 2009 issue of the UKCLE newsletter, Directions.

Evaluating the Economides and Rogers report

This brief presentation places the Economides and Rogers Report in the context of the longer standing debate about the place of legal ethics at the academic stage. It focuses on the assumptions and recommendations made by Economides and Rogers, as regards the scope, placement, assessment and resourcing of ethics in the law curriculum and offers some questions for consideration.

Ethics in the undergraduate curriculum: lessons from New Zealand

Discussion of Legal Ethics in New Zealand was triggered by a crisis of confidence in the legal profession in 1992. One result was the requirement that all new entrants to the profession after July 2000 hold a pass in a University paper (module) on Legal Ethics. Ken Mackinnon explained the background to this development and looked at the debate around it. He identified a number of issues that had to be resolved. These include what should be taught, at what stage in the degree, and how the module should be monitored. These issues are equally pertinent in the UK. He concluded by considering what lessons can be learned from the 10 years of compulsory legal ethics teaching in New Zealand.

Workshop: Curriculum

This workshop considered ways of incorporating legal ethics into the undergraduate curriculum. It recognised the validity of different motives for introducing legal ethics and explored how different motives might suggest different approaches.

It offered participants‟ opportunities to discuss whether ethics works best in discrete modules or integrated into other subjects within the curriculum. It provided examples of materials and methods which may be used and opportunities to explore how they might best be used.

Workshop handouts are available to download at the bottom of the page.

Workshop: Resourcing

This workshop examined five key areas: scope, approach, personnel, assessment and evaluation. These covered the purposes of teaching ethics and the materials needed; how to deliver ethics teaching and where and when they should be in the curriculum; who should teach ethics and what training they might need; what should be assessed and how; and how the teaching of ethics should be evaluated.

Last Modified: 18 June 2010