Not available in 2014
Professional Conduct critically examines and analyses the role of the legal profession and the specialised legal, ethical and professional conduct duties and professional responsibilities of lawyers. Students will critically evaluate the history, structure and regulation of the legal profession before analysing and evaluating the admission requirements to the legal profession. The course identifies and critically analyses the specialised concepts, principles, duties and obligations of a lawyer to the courts, clients, other legal practitioners, the public and other parties. The course will critically examine complex ethical and professional conduct issues, concepts, problems and dilemmas that can arise for a lawyer in practice. The course also identifies and critically analyses the role of the legal profession and its commitment to pro bono and promoting justice in the community.
| Objectives | On successful competition of this course a student will be able to: 1. Identify, analyse and synthesise professional conduct rules and case law and to take action which complies with those professional conduct rules and principles. 2. Demonstrate specialised technical knowledge of professional conduct law and the regulatory framework governing lawyers in relation to their ethics and professional conduct. 3. Engage reflectively with legal ethics and professional conduct issues and critically evaluate the institutional framework for regulating the legal profession. 4. Apply, interpret and critically examine the legislation, rules and case law to complex professional conduct problems in a problem based learning context; be able to effectively communicate, both verbally and in writing, in complex professional conduct issues, principles and concepts. 5. Demonstrate high level personal autonomy, expert judgment and accountability in dealing with specialised and complex professional conduct issues, dilemmas principles and concepts. |
||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Content | The topics in this course include: 1. Overview of Professional Regulation 2. The Changing Nature of Legal Practice 3. Access to justice, Legal Aid, Pro Bono work and Social Justice 4. Regulation of Admission to the Legal Profession; Disclosure for admission 5. Practising law; Solicitors and Barristers 6. Lawyers’ Duty to the Client 7. Client Capacity 8. Conflict of Interest; Information Barriers 9. Lawyers’ Duty to the Court and to the Administration of Justice 10. Witnesses 11. Lawyers’ Duty to Other Lawyers, the Public and to Others 12. Prosecutors and Defence Lawyers’ duties and obligations 13. Barristers and Advocates’ Immunity 14. Judicial Bias 15. Lawyers and the Media 16. Discipline, Professional Misconduct and Unsatisfactory Professional Conduct, conduct in practice and conduct outside of practice, the role of the NSW Administrative Decisions Tribunal and the Supreme Court of NSW, penalties and striking off 17. The role of the Ethics Section of the Law Society of New South Wales and the Office of the Legal Services Commissioner NSW 18. Retainer, Costs Disclosure and Agreement, Lien 19. Trust and Office Accounting – Introduction to Accounting, Receiving money, rendering costs, maintaining a Trust Account, Controlled Money, legislative requirements and record keeping. |
||||||
| Replacing Course(s) | n/a | ||||||
| Transition | n/a | ||||||
| Industrial Experience | 0 | ||||||
| Assumed Knowledge | LAWS6001, LAWS6002A, LAWS6002B, LAWS6003A, LAWS6003B, LAWS6004A, LAWS6004B, LAWS6005 | ||||||
| Modes of Delivery | Internal Mode | ||||||
| Teaching Methods | Lecture
Tutorial |
||||||
| Assessment Items |
|
||||||
| Contact Hours | Lecture: for 2 hour(s) per Week for 13 weeks Tutorial: for 1 hour(s) per Fortnight for 13 weeks |
||||||
| Compulsory Components |
|