Things go wrong in companies when lawyers are isolated, overruled, or working in a culture where ethics take a back seat to commercial goals. These aren’t just ‘legal’ issues. They’re leadership failures.
At the Legal Services Board, we’ve seen evidence that some lawyers, including those working in corporate settings and in-house, aren’t always sure how to handle difficult ethical situations. They may be under pressure from their employer or from a client. So, in the first place, we want lawyers to know how to prioritise their different responsibilities when they come into conflict.
But it’s also clear that many business leaders and boards aren’t fully aware of their lawyers’ ethical responsibilities. That’s a gap we want to close.
We’re currently consulting on how to raise ethical standards in the legal profession. We want to hear a wide range of views, not just those of lawyers, because our proposals could affect how businesses, charities and other organisations work with their legal advisers in future.
Our role is to oversee the regulation of legal services in England and Wales. We have a unique vantage across all the regulated parts of the profession, from solicitors to notaries, and we make sure that the individual professional regulators – like the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) – are doing all they can to help lawyers understand and uphold their ethical responsibilities.
Our consultation proposes a series of outcomes that legal regulators would need to meet. Some are about the basics, like consistent training and clearer rules. But outcome 3 goes further: it’s about making sure that lawyers are supported and empowered to act ethically when they are put under pressure.
When leaders understand what’s expected of their legal advisers, they can help create workplace cultures in which ethics are prioritised. Workplace culture is crucial: legal teams need to feel confident raising red flags, knowing they’ll be backed if they do. This consultation is a chance to help build that kind of culture into the regulatory framework.
We want to hear about the kinds of real-life support that would actually help you and your legal teams. The SRA has made a start in this area, but what else could regulators do to make it easier for lawyers to act ethically, even in tough situations?
The consultation is open until 29 May and is available on our website. We’d love to hear your thoughts on any of the questions in the consultation, but you can choose which ones best suit the contribution you have to make.
Help us to ensure that legal regulation is playing the best role it can to protect and promote ethical cultures.
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