The foundation of legal empowerment is based on four strong pillars — access to justice and the rule of law, labour rights, property rights, and business rights. Legal ethics is the fifth and most important pillar of legal empowerment, and young law professionals play a critical role in shaping the legal sphere’s future by abiding by the code of ethics and incorporating timely changes.
In today’s global economy, it is extremely critical that core professional values are inculcated in young legal professionals, who consequently act with integrity, provide proper assistance to the court, and promote public trust in the legal system, which ultimately helps to work ethically while respecting human rights.
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The fundamental aim of legal ethics is to uphold the honour and dignity of the legal sphere, ensuring the spirit of friendly cooperation, mutual and fair dealing of counsel with clients, and to secure lawyers’ responsibilities to society. There are some fundamental principles that constitute the essence of legal ethics. These include diligence and dedication, professionalism, uprightness and integrity, personal development, and the impact of technology on professional ethics and the general practice of law.
According to research by Steven Vaughan and Emma Oakley, modern-day corporate lawyers are extremely ethically apathetic, they are neither good nor bad, but are rather indifferent when it comes to the ethics of what they do and the impacts it might have on their work.
The challenge for young professionals entering the legal profession is to resolve the fundamental paradoxes that it faces, and to reorganise itself in such a way that ordinary citizens have more effective, real, and affordable access to legal advice and representation.
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Young professionals can achieve great heights in their careers to become successful lawyers by taking up pro-bono cases, as this allow them to gain experience and develop their skill sets. Taking advantage of potential lawyers’ energy and desire to help others is a win-win situation. For example, the American Bar Association’s Model Rules of Professional Conduct states that every lawyer must provide at least 50 hours of pro-bono legal service.
It is said that the most valuable asset of a profession is its collective reputation and the trust that it inspires. The legal profession, in particular, must have the community’s trust, and young professionals are the future roots of success.
The writer is Director, Symbiosis Law School, Nagpur