This chapter sets out some general theories about ethics. How do we judge what is the right thing to do? What makes a decision morally justifiable? What makes a person good? It considers some ethical disagreements and describes some of the general ethical approaches that are taken to ethical dilemmas. It then addresses the question of whether lawyers’ ethics are any different from others; in other words, whether lawyers can be said to have any extra ethical obligations because they are lawyers. Finally, it looks at how legal training and legal practice has taken the ethical obligations of lawyers more seriously.
Chapter
1. Ethical theories
Chapter
2. The social context of the legal profession
This chapter looks at lawyers in a broad social context. Lawyers hold a position of privilege within society by virtue of their knowledge about the law. It explores why lawyers have this special status and the role that they play in the broader society. This is coming under challenge as a range of other individuals and groups seek to take on what might be traditionally seen as legal work. There is also a tension between the wish to maintain the integrity of the legal profession, while increasing access to it. The chapter shows that the legal profession is under challenge from a number of directions.
Chapter
8. Fees
This chapter focuses on legal fees. It discusses the ways in which lawyers charge fees and the different ways of funding legal costs. A common way of assessing fees is using the ‘billable’ hour, by which a client is charged for each hour (or part of an hour) a lawyer works in their case. This has both advantages and disadvantages, as explored in this chapter. The chapter goes on to consider the ethical aspects of fees. The chapter covers conditional fee arrangements (CFAs) and speculative fees, legal expense insurance, hourly fees, and legal proceedings to recover fees. It also discusses legal aid.
Book
Paul J. du Plessis
Course-focused and comprehensive, Borkowski’s Textbook on Roman Law provide an accessible overview of the key areas on the law curriculum. Borkowski’s Textbook on Roman Law provides an account of Roman private law and civil procedure, with coverage of all key topics, including the Roman legal system, and the law of persons, property, and obligations. The text sets the law in its social and historical context, and demonstrates the impact of Roman law on our modern legal systems. For the sixth edition, the text has been comprehensively reviewed and references to a wide range of scholarly texts have been included, to ground the account of Roman law firmly in contemporary scholarship. Examples from legal practice have been added where these illuminate legal doctrine. The text has been updated to reflect current scholarly opinions. References to the latest legal scholarship on Roman law have been included to reflect the most recent developments in the field.
Chapter
12. Expanding Legal Skills— Mooting, Negotiation, and More
This chapter considers further activities and opportunities for the student to put their knowledge of law and their legal skills into practice, and further develop skills that are key to legal practice. This is important for legal careers but also in developing skills to enhance employability more generally. This chapter explores important legal skills-related extracurricular activities that are commonly available within the law programme or on an extracurricular basis, particularly mooting, negotiation, client interviewing, and debating, and the value of these activities in developing legal and general skills including analysis, critical thinking, professionalism, and teamwork.
