Designing Ethics Indicators for Legal Services Provision

UCL Centre for Ethics and Law, Working Paper No. 1

149 Pages Posted: 10 Oct 2012 Last revised: 20 Feb 2014

See all articles by Richard Moorhead

Richard Moorhead

Exeter Law School, University of Exeter; Centre for Ethics and Law, Faculty of Laws, UCL London

Victoria Hinchly

University of Wales, Cardiff - Department of Law; University of Exeter; University of Oregon - Department of Political Science

Christine Parker

Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne

David Kershaw

London School of Economics - Law School; European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI)

Soren Holm

The University of Manchester - Institute of Medicine, Law and Bioethics (IMLAB)

Date Written: September 9, 2012

Abstract

Market liberalisation of legal services is being accompanied by key changes in professional regulation, notably outcome focused regulation, prioritised through risk-assessment and invoking stronger elements of relationship management. These suggest changes in the nature of professionalism. For some at least, market liberalisation in particular threatens to weaken professional ethics.

Because of the transitions underway in the legal services market, there is a need to better understand the ethics of legal service providers. This report examines ways of doing that.

Regulators (and businesses) in other fields and jurisdictions have begun to recognise the limitations of command and control regulation and as a result, an interest in tools which seek to deepen understandings of ethics has grown.

Systematic understanding of ethics in the legal services market is remarkably thin. Debate about ethics is often based on anecdote and argument and where it is evidenced at all it usually derives from data on complaints and regulatory enforcement. These are limited sources, subject to limited analysis. Some more detailed specific analyses have been undertaken relevant to particular market sectors (wills) or themes (referral fees).

This document reviews how empirical research can be used to track ethics across a legal services market consisting of a range of different markets and provider types, both professional and non-professional.

Keywords: ethics, lawyers, legal services, professional ethics, regulation, empirical

Suggested Citation

Moorhead, Richard Lewis and Hinchly, Victoria and Parker, Christine and Kershaw, David and Holm, Soren, Designing Ethics Indicators for Legal Services Provision (September 9, 2012). UCL Centre for Ethics and Law, Working Paper No. 1, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2159296 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2159296

Richard Lewis Moorhead (Contact Author)

Exeter Law School, University of Exeter ( email )

University of Exeter
Exeter, Devon EX4 4RJ
United Kingdom

Centre for Ethics and Law, Faculty of Laws, UCL London ( email )

Bentham House
4-8 Endsleigh Gardens
London, WC1E OEG
United Kingdom

Victoria Hinchly

University of Wales, Cardiff - Department of Law ( email )

PO Box 427
Cardiff, Wales CF10 3AX
United Kingdom

University of Exeter ( email )

Northcote House
The Queen's Drive
Exeter, Devon EX4 4QJ
United Kingdom

University of Oregon - Department of Political Science ( email )

Eugene, OR 97403
United States

Christine Parker

Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne ( email )

University Square
185 Pelham Street, Carlton
Victoria, Victoria 3010
Australia

HOME PAGE: http://law.unimelb.edu.au/about/staff/christine-parker

David Kershaw

London School of Economics - Law School

Houghton Street
London WC2A 2AE, WC2A 2AE
United Kingdom

European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI) ( email )

c/o the Royal Academies of Belgium
Rue Ducale 1 Hertogsstraat
1000 Brussels
Belgium

Soren Holm

The University of Manchester - Institute of Medicine, Law and Bioethics (IMLAB) ( email )

Oxford Road
Manchester UK M13 9PL
United Kingdom
0161 275-7014 (Phone)

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