Legal and Ethical Issues in Solicitor's Code of Conduct

This essay discusses the legal and ethical issues in the Solicitor's Code of Conduct and provides advice to a firm and its solicitors. It covers topics such as professional conduct, conflict of interest, and breach of code.

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Name of Student
Name of University
Author Note

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Introduction
A code of professional conducts can be described as to be outlining each ethical principle
that would be governing the decisions and behaviors of the professionals in any company or
organization. The codes are seen as to be providing for the guidelines that the professionals are
needed to be following with relation to their behavior, handling of clients and their data,
managing any conflict in interest. In the United Kingdom the solicitors are seen as regulated by
the Solicitors’ Code of Conduct1 introduced under the provisions of the Solicitors Regulation
Authority. The firms in the United Kingdom providing legal services are guided by the
provisions of the SRA Code of Conducts for Firms2. In this essay advice has been provided to a
firm and its solicitors for the possible legal and ethical issues in concern with an issue with an
employee named Mike.
Code of Conduct
The SRA Code of Conduct for Firms can be seen as to be describing the standards and
controls in business that are being expected from the firms that have been authorized by the
Solicitors Regulation Authority for providing legal services. For any failure in meeting the
standards of the SRA or any breach of the code by the employees, the firm would be held
responsible and the SRA would be seen as taking regulatory actions against the firm as an entity
or against the managers or compliance officers who are responsible to ensure that the standards
have been met. Paragraph 8.1 of the code provides for the joint and several responsibility of all
1 Solicitors’ Code of Conduct
2 SRA Code of Conducts for Firms

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the managers or any other governing body for making the firm being in compliance with the
provisions of the code.
The SRA Code of Conduct for Solicitors, RELs and RFLs are seen as describing the
professionalism standards that are being expected from the solicitors, registered European
lawyers and registered foreign lawyers providing legal services who have been authorized by the
SRA. The SRA code of conduct can be seen as applying to the conducts and behavior of any
legal professional and further comprises of a framework for practicing in an ethical and
competent way. The code provides for the standard for the legal professionals to be acting fairly
by maintaining trust, being competent with the services provided, conflict of interests,
confidentiality and disclosure, being cooperative and accountable, publicity.
In the current scenario it was seen that Mike had been having stress about his home
pressure which is affecting his work. He was seen as discussing about his problem to his senior
partner but he had been turning a deaf ear to Mike’s problems and had been piling up works for
Mike. Because of both personal and work problems Mike is seen as doing mistakes in his job and
often is not careful with the information and files of the clients he even forgot to renew his
practicing certificate. Another issue in the current scenario is that Mike’s brother, who had been
arrested for fighting after being intoxicated, had asked Mike to be defending him in the capacity
of Mike as a criminal lawyer and give a false statement to the police about the crime committed
by Jack, which Mike was seen as following by giving a false statement to the police as was asked
from him. The next day Mike had missed appointments with two new clients as he reached to
work very late. When he reached work he found out that the fight for which his brother Jack was
arrested for had been posted on Facebook and there have been rude comments about the firm
written beside the picture of Mike.

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The senior partner of the firm, Mark can be considered as one of the members of the
governing body and would be liable for the compliance of the firm with the codes of conduct
mentioned under the paragraph 8.1.
Paragraph 1.1 of the Solicitors Code of Conduct mentions that a solicitor is needed to be
acting in a fair way and not allowing their personal views to be affecting the professional
relationships and the way in which the solicitor provides his service. Paragraph 1.2 states the
responsibility of the solicitor to be performing all his duties within the timescale that has been
agreed or any reasonable amount of time. As per paragraph 1.4 a solicitor should not be
misleading or attempt to be misleading the clients, courts and others by his own acts or
omissions or by allowing the acts or omissions of others. A solicitor is required to be ensuring
that the service provided by him is carried out in a competent and timely manner. As per 6.1 of
the code a solicitor is seen as being prohibited to be acting in any conflict of interest. Paragraph
7.1 requires a solicitor to be keeping up to date with and follow all the laws and regulations that
are seen as governing the work.
Mike as a solicitor who is regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority is bound as to
be following the guidelines provided by the SRA. As per Paragraph 1.1 of the Solicitors Code of
Conduct he is needed to be acting in a fair way and not allowing his personal views to be
affecting the professional relationships and the way in which he provides his service. He is seen
to be in breach of this provision as he continues to do mistakes in his work and is often seen as
not handling the information and files of the clients with a care that is required. Paragraph 1.2
states the responsibility of Mike to be performing all his duties within the timescale that has been
agreed or any reasonable amount of time. This provision has also been breached by him as he
himself had noticed that he slips things. As per paragraph 1.4 Mike is prohibited to be misleading

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or attempt to be misleading the clients, courts and others by his own acts or omissions or by
allowing the acts or omissions of others. By providing the police with a false statement by
agreeing to his brother he has also breached this provision. As per 6.1 of the code Mike has been
prohibited to be acting in any conflict of interest. He is seen as having a hard time coping with
his personal problems and the work pressure which is taking a toll on him and his work is
disrupted, hence he is in conflict of interest between his work and his personal problems in
breach of the provision of the paragraph. Although Paragraph 7.1 requires Mike to be keeping up
to date with and follow all the laws and regulations that are seen as governing his work, however
the because of his personal problems in relation to the aggressive nature of his brother and the
work pressure given by his boss to him he is even seen to be forgetting to renew his practicing
certificate in the current year.
For the breach of the provisions of the codes of conduct by the solicitors the SRA has
provided with set of rules providing the circumstances in which they can be exercising their
powers and governing the timeline when they could be publishing their decisions. These rules
have been mentioned under the SRA Disciplinary Procedure Rules 20103. In the rule 3 the
circumstances for the written rebukal or direction for penalty to the individuals and firms
regulated under the SRA has been mentioned. The penalty could be upto £2,000. For any minor
misconduct the SRA could be sending the individuals a Letter of Advice.
Conclusion
In this essay advice has been provided to a firm and its solicitors for the possible legal
and ethical issues in concern with an issue with the solicitor Mike. In the United Kingdom the
3 SRA Disciplinary Procedure Rules 2010

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solicitors are seen as regulated by the Solicitors’ Code of Conduct introduced under the
provisions of the Solicitors Regulation Authority. The firms in the United Kingdom providing
legal services are guided by the provisions of the SRA Code of Conducts for Firms. Thus Mike
can be seen in breach of many of the conducts present in the code. He would be held liable under
the SRA Disciplinary Procedure Rules 2010 with a penalty or rebukal depending on the
seriousness of the breach.

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Reference
Solicitors’ Code of Conduct
SRA Code of Conducts for Firms
SRA Disciplinary Procedure Rules 2010