Ethical Perspectives on the UK Legal Profession: A Business Law Report

This report provides a comprehensive overview of the ethical considerations within the UK legal profession, focusing on the conduct of solicitors and barristers. It examines the legal framework, including the Legal Services Act 2007 and SRA principles, and analyzes the roles and responsibilities of both solicitors and barristers. The report discusses ethical challenges such as client communication, discrimination, and overcharging, while also highlighting the importance of ethical codes of conduct. It uses case examples and research to assess the ethical practices of legal professionals in the UK, concluding that, despite certain shortcomings, the UK legal profession generally operates ethically. The report underscores the strong relationship between the justice system, the rule of law, and ethical conduct within the legal field. The analysis draws from academic sources, surveys, and legal frameworks to present a balanced view of ethical practices within the UK legal profession.

Business Law and Ethics-1

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................2
MAIN BODY.............................................................................................................................2
Discussing the legal profession in UK in ethical perspective................................................2
CONCLUSION..........................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES...........................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Business law is that body which governs the business and it is also known as a branch
of civil law which deals with issue of private as well as public law. While ethic in business is
refers to implementing proper business policies and practice with controversial subjects.
Through ethics, company will run in positive direction and this help to meet the define aim as
well. In the same way, current study is also describe the legal profession of UK which is
comprises of two types of lawyers Junior lawyers and Senior lawyer from an ethical
perspective with relevant cases.
MAIN BODY
Discussing the legal profession in UK in ethical perspective
As per the legislative framework for the regulation of legal services in England and
Wales which is set out in the Legal services Act 2007 in which only individual and business
authorized by Approved Regulator and also entitled to provide reserved legal activities as
well (Legal profession of UK, 2019). Such that exercise of a right of audience, conduct of
litigation, reserved instrument activities, probate activities etc. So these activities are actually
carry out by the professionals which are known as :
Solicitors: They are the largest part of the legal profession and also have a direct
contact with their clients by providing the legal advice and also assistance to range of matters.
They are also represent the clients in higher courts so that they get higher rights of audience
as well.
Barristers: the second largest part of the legal profession in UK which are authorized
to conduct the reserved legal activities. They are legal advisers and courtroom advocates.
As per the law society where the survey conducted by Gazette, it has been analyzed
that solicitors are provided the best quality of services to their customers, but in the same
time, the research also found that nearly one in three people also faced with contentious
issues such that they did not seek help and wanted more help to get the issue resolved (Duff
and Webley, 2020). So based upon the data collected on 2019, where more than 28 thousand
people participated in order to present their views and analyzed that two in three people
experience a legal issue in the previous four year surveyed. But they also stated that the
lawyers of UK help them in order to solve the issue by taking minimum fees. Further, this

shows that there is a satisfaction level among customers with regards to legal professions
service and as per the ethical perception, it is true.
On the other side, there are some weakness of these legal profession such that poor
client conversation. Such that many year ago, there is no proper system that is available for
the client to have a clear conversation in order to maintain positive communication between
client and lawyer (Field and Spearing, 2019). So, in the recent times with the development of
new techniques and advance facilities, there is a digital records which are maintain by the
lawyers in order to maintain the bets result. Further, customer journey is another weak point
of the legal profession and that is why, it affected the relationship of many customers with
lawyer in negative manner.
As per the Discrimination law in UK, lawyers do not have a right to refuse to provide
a service to any client, but if they have their valid reason to refuse for any cases then they can
say it so. Therefore, it is necessary for the lawyers to treat fairly according to the law and
provide proper views to the client without taking any extra charges, because it is not ethical
in the eyes of law. As it is clearly mention in the secondary research that the justice system of
UK is so expensive in the world, but it does not mean that it cheated from the client. Also,
majority of the client are also in favor that the legal system of UK is well maintained and the
picture of overspending is misleading to many people (Gray, 2016). Such that it confuse the
legal aid with the justice system as a whole. Moreover, it is also analyzed from the research
that the legal assistance budget is high but they all have a proofs or justice bill that show the
work is done with ethical manner.
Therefore it is analyzes that there is no unethical practices run in the legal profession
of UK but both junior and senior lawyer of UK serve their best practices for the welfare of
the people such that they meet and interview the client in order to establish the firm’s
suitability so that they provide necessary advice to them. On the other side there are range of
solicitor who take high fees for their advise but they do not mislead their client by providing
wrong advice. The clients may be individual or a business, therefore, both solicitor and
barrister try to maintain the relationship between the business and they do not take
unnecessary amount from their client in order to manage the case, because they know it’s a
wrong practice and that is why, they sort out the cases as well (Hu and Lu, 2020). For
example, in the top business when the CEO confuse with regards to expansion and legal term,
they consult with the lawyers in order to manage the work and that is why, every company

have their own legal advisors that will assist to take better decision without taking extra fees
from their client expect their negotiable price or salary.
Also, the government of UK made many laws and principle in order to run their
business in ethical manner such that SRA principle which provide ten ethical and
professional standards that should be adhering by all the legal professionals. On the other
side, another ethical code of conduct is SRA Code of Conduct 2011 which also outline the
ethical standards that SRA expects of practice and practitioners which has to comply by the
legal professions. This also provide the indicative behaviors which further outline how the
results are attain with the consistent of the general principle (Reid and Olga, 2016). Thus, it is
states there is no chances of taking unwarranted expensive legal fees from the client because
it is stated that it is the responsibility of the lawyers to make sure that they comply with all
the ethical codes in order to manage the work and provide best service to their customers as
well. Also, there is no strong evidence that also shows that even having two different types of
lawyers, there is any wrong deeds happen in the UK, while other countries have only one
lawyers. The only thing that shows that it has the high and expensive fees as compared to
other countries (Aulack and et.al., 2017).
As it is stated that UK is not 100% free from the wrong deeds in the terms of legal
profession but the ratio is low as compared to other countries. Though there are many cases
which also shows that Solicitor and Barrister take unnecessary feed from the client and they
do not fulfill their rights. Such that the famous case of Kaye Rosefielde which shows that
lawyer take amount but not fulfill their promises and as per the eye of law, it is completely
unethical. That is why, the argument is made by Mr. Rosefielde but he was acting as an
officer of the firm and that is why, the ethical rules are not applied on his conduct , but at the
end, this was also squarely rejected as ‘fallacious’ (Reinstein, Pacini and Green, 2020).
Therefore, it can be stated that the chances of unethical issue by lawyer is low as compared to
ethical practices. That is why, if these unethical practices are recognized in the eyes of the
law, then the lawyer has to pay penalty which is describe under the section.
Hence, through this, it is stated that the junior and senior lawyer of UK are actually
perform their services in an ethical manner. Therefore, it is analyzed that with the help of
effective communication and own abilities, the lawyers of UK provide the best services
without affecting the laws in opposite manner. This shows that there is a strong relationship

between the justice and rule of law in UK and this is directly connected with the legal
profession which is in ethically manner.
CONCLUSION
By summing up above report it has been concluded that legal profession in UK is run
in effective manner without any error. Such that government of UK state that though the fees
of legal service is high but the service provided is also perfect and ethical which shows that
the client of customers are getting real access to justice without giving any extra fees. From
the above it has been concluded that both solicitor and Barrister are also complying with the
stated principle and there are less case which show these legal profession perform their work
in unethical manner.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Aulack, S. and et.al., 2017. Mapping advantages and disadvantages: Diversity in the legal
profession in England and Wales.
Duff, L. and Webley, L., 2020. Gender and the legal academy in the UK: a product of proxies
and hiring and promotion practices. Hart Publishing.
Field, R.M. and Spearing, R., 2019. Well-Being and a Positive Professional Identity in the
Legal Profession: A Snapshot of the UK Bar. In Educating for Well-Being in Law:
Positive Professional Identities and Practice (pp. 42-57). Routledge.
Gray, J., 2016. Lawyers and systemic risk in finance: could (and should) the legal profession
contribute to macroprudential regulation?. Legal Ethics.19(1). pp.122-144.
Hu, T. and Lu, H., 2020, January. Study on the Influence of Artificial Intelligence on Legal
Profession. In 5th International Conference on Economics, Management, Law and
Education (EMLE 2019) (pp. 964-968). Atlantis Press.
Reid, I. and Olga, M., 2016. Profession Service Operations: the case for Service Modularity
with a Legal Partnership.
Reinstein, A., Pacini, C.J. and Green, B.P., 2020. Examining the current legal environment
facing the public accounting profession: recommendations for a consistent US
policy. Journal of Accounting, Auditing & Finance.35(1). pp.3-25.
Online
Legal profession of UK. 2019. [Online]. Available through: <
https://uk.practicallaw.thomsonreuters.com/7-633-7078?
transitionType=Default&contextData=(sc.Default)&firstPage=true&bhcp=1 >.