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Full-Text Articles in Law
Does Civility Matter?, Alice Woolley
Does Civility Matter?, Alice Woolley
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
Recent discussion of legal ethics in Canada has focused on the importance of "civility" as a fundamental value and goal of ethical conduct. This comment questions that focus. After defining the content of "civility' and reviewing its treatment in these initiatives by both the law societies and the courts, the author suggests that the emphasis on civility is misplaced. Focusing on civility has the undesirable tendency to impede lawyer reporting of misconduct by other lawyers and potentially undermines the effective representation of client interests. It also shifts emphasis away from the ethical values that should be the focus of our …
Canadian Legal Ethics: Ready For The Twenty-First Century At Last, Adam M. Dodek
Canadian Legal Ethics: Ready For The Twenty-First Century At Last, Adam M. Dodek
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
This article analyzes the transformation in the scholarship of legal ethics that has occurred in Canada over the last decade, and maps out an agenda for future research. The author attributes the recent growth of Canadian legal ethics as an academic discipline to a number of interacting factors: a response to external pressures, initiatives within the legal profession, changes in Canadian legal education, and the emergence of a new cadre of legal ethics scholars. This article chronicles the public history of legal ethics in Canada over the last decade and analyzes the first and second wave of scholarship in the …
Sustainable Professionalism, Trevor C. W. Farrow
Sustainable Professionalism, Trevor C. W. Farrow
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
This article challenges traditional visions of lawyering by building on current alternative narratives and articulating a new discourse of professionalism that is personally, politically, ethically, economically, and professionally sustainable. It is a discourse that makes space for lawyers' principles, interests, and life preferences by balancing them with other important interests (including, but not dominated by, those of clients). It is a discourse that seeks to make good on aspirational promises of equality, access to justice, and protecting the public interest. And it is a discourse that takes seriously obligations to, as well as benefits from, the culturally complicated makeup of …
In The Public Interest': The Responsibilities And Rights Of Government Lawyers, Allan C. Hutchinson
In The Public Interest': The Responsibilities And Rights Of Government Lawyers, Allan C. Hutchinson
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
While considerable thought and effort have been put into exploring and fixing the ethical rights and professional responsibilities of private Lawyers, little energy has been directed towards defining and defending the role and duties of government lawyers. As a result, the traditional understanding seems to be that government lawyers are to consider themselves as being under the same regimen and restrictions as their private counterparts. After criticizing this default approach, the article offers a fresh evaluation of what is different about the role of government lawyers and develops a more appropriate model for thinking about their professional responsibilities and ethical …
The Public Interest, Professionalism, And Pro Bono Publico, Lorne Sossin
The Public Interest, Professionalism, And Pro Bono Publico, Lorne Sossin
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
There is a clear public interest benefit for lawyers to ensure access to the rule of law, especially on the part of the vulnerable. This article seeks to show that the seemingly simple relationship between the legal profession and the public interest is in fact more complicated than it looks. Pro bono may be viewed from two perspectives-that of the lawyer and that of the client. From the perspective of the lawyer, the important question is whether there is ethical motivation to engage in pro bono. If, however, the perspective of the client is paramount, then meeting the client's needs …
Representing A Minor: A Shared Dilemma In Ontario And Massachusetts, Andrew L. Kaufman
Representing A Minor: A Shared Dilemma In Ontario And Massachusetts, Andrew L. Kaufman
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
This commentary considers what lawyers should do when confidential information from their minor clients indicates that the minor's instructions either present a substantial risk of harm to the minor or are irrational. The commentary then asks readers to decide whether and how their personal resolution should be generalized into the law of professional responsibility. The author compares current Ontario and Massachusetts law with a new Massachusetts proposal. The author strongly criticizes the proposal as violating the tenuous compromise between "client-directed" and "best- interests" or "substituted judgment" theories that appear to govern in both jurisdictions in favour of a rule that …