You Are Where You Eat: The Influence Your Colleagues Will Have on Your Relationship With Legal Ethics

Ethics are the core of the legal profession, guiding lawyers, young and old in their interactions with clients, the public, and the bar. Each jurisdiction maintains a Code of Professional Conduct as a set of rules for lawyers to follow as members of the profession to maintain the profession’s honour and dignity. Much of each Code is open to interpretation and therefore can only form part of a lawyer’s approach to ethical conduct. Every lawyer also relies on their personal ethics, character, and the advice of their mentors, colleagues, and peers.

This short paper will address the challenges of ethical lawyering when colleagues do not share the same ethical standards. Most importantly, students should be assisted in uncovering their own ethical boundaries. Next students should be taught how to uncover a potential employer’s true ethical boundaries, prior to accepting an offer. Finally, students should be cautioned against accepting an offer from a firm where the ethical expectations do not align.

Ethics as a spectrum

Ethical conundrums can be resolved through a spectrum of solutions that comply with the Code. Finding a solution that is personally and professionally acceptable will consider several factors, some of which may have conflicting interests. Two factors that may see great conflict are when a lawyer is required to balance employers’ expectations with their personal morals. A person’s ethical boundaries may naturally overlap with the ethical boundaries of their employer, but in circumstances where overlap cannot be found, or created, an ethical dilemma arises. Ethical dilemmas cannot always be avoided, but the opportunity for this conflict can be mitigated by uncovering an employer’s ethical views prior to employment.

Uncovering Ethics

In order for a student to find an employer with a similar ethical outlook, the student must start by understanding their own ethical boundaries. Some students may have preconceived notions of their ethical preferences, others may be uncertain about their professional ethical boundaries. A required first-year course on legal ethics, prior to formal recruit, would assist many young lawyers in determining their values and understanding where those values lie on the ethical spectrum. This will help students pursue employment with firms where their values align, helping them prevent future ethical conundrums, and focusing more on appropriate firm culture, rather than just securing a position. Expanding the scope of job searches to include ethical overlap, the student and the employer are encouraging longer-lasting relationships and reduced turnover.

Aligning Ethical Views

Once a student has established their own ethical parameters, they can begin the complicated process of seeking an employer who has similar values. Firms often have a portrayed ethical platform that may not align with their practices when conflicts actually arise. This can be attributed to creating an ideal standard that doesn’t translate when balancing factors such as client management, profitability, and professional norms. Uncovering a firm’s true ethical boundaries is fundamental to a student’s long-term employment and job satisfaction because the members of that firm will become the mentors, peers, and colleagues of that individual. When an ethical problem arises, it is the members of their firm that the articling student will turn to for guidance and advice. The practices that articling student and young lawyers develop early in their careers can dictate how they practice and their overall relationship with the legal profession.

Selecting your first law-related employer can be the most important decision of a blossoming legal career. However, little experience in the legal field leaves students ill-equipped to decipher a prospective employer’s true ethical intentions. Students should be coached on how to appropriately discover a firm’s ethical boundaries. In particular, students should learn how to respectfully question an employer in a manner that provides insight into a firm’s culture. Additionally, students should be encouraged to seek ethical leaders within firms to converse with. As with any pre-interview research, students should be directed to review a firm’s philanthropic ventures, seminars, blogs, and other external portfolios with the intent of discovering the firm’s ethical boundaries. Finally, students should be encouraged to search for lawyers within the firm in the law society tribunal database to see if members of the firm have sustained disciplinary reprimands, and how the firm has been seen to have handled them prior to the law societies involvement.

Conclusion

Ethics are a cornerstone of mentorship and culture, early education on ethics can reframe the job-hunt for students. A course on legal ethics would be invaluable to first-year law students. It will assist them in uncovering their own ethical boundaries and provide them with the necessary tools to uncover a prospective employer’s ethical boundaries. Thus, leaving the student equipped to determine whether their ethics align, and ultimately providing them with a better understanding of whether their prospective employment will be successful. Reframing the job hunt to include a detailed analysis of ethical boundaries can lead to more sustainable relationships with fewer ethical conflicts, ultimately launching more legal careers destined to thrive.

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Before attending the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Law, Amanda Scott was a senior litigation paralegal, specializing in complex personal injury matters. She is passionate about litigation and increased use of alternative dispute resolution. She begins articling in September 2023 with a British Columbia based labour and employment firm and looks forward to spending the summer hiking, reading fiction, and swimming in the Pacific Ocean.