Comments on: Do Law Schools Teach Students to be Ethical?

By: Biff

Biff — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 02:02:53 +0000

@Meg,

no wonder Canadian schools are so highly regarded!

By: Law Blog Law Bombs: 9/14/2009 « The Reasonably Prudent Law Student

Law Blog Law Bombs: 9/14/2009 « The Reasonably Prudent Law Student — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 03:50:08 +0000

[...] Do law schools teach students to be ethical? [Legal Geekery] [...]

By: Meg

Meg — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 20:40:19 +0000

Yea, the exams at our school aren’t really watched either. I mean, the prof will come in and hang out to distribute the exam and for a little while in case we have any questions, then they usually wander off. We can come and go as we please- for example, during Torts in first year, a bunch of people forgot the Occupier’s Liability Act, and just went to the library to print it off. And we hand write exams, so the internet isn’t an issue.

Plus, our ethics class is more about applying the Law Society’s rules, not being ‘moral’. In fact, we usually draw a distinction between what is ‘right’ and what is within the duties of our profession. I think it’s a great class, since it’s shown where there grey areas are, and makes us recognize that our personal moral issues can help, but don’t solve our professional dilemmas.

Oh, and ethics isn’t a required class in Canada. It’s highly recommended as a class and tested on the bar exams/CPLED course, but it’s not required as a class. I’m not sure how I feel about that, since my law school does require it, but it’s not mandated by the various law societies, nor by the government.

By: Podcast Ipsa Loquitur: Ethical Attorneys, Hugh Laurie, Cleavage in Court | Social Media Law Student

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 17:07:12 +0000

[...] of Josh’s articles was discussed by a rabbi. The original posting was actually on Legalgeekery.com. [...]

By: ouij

ouij — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 12:33:27 +0000

“Ethics” are bunk. Don’t believe me? Why did it take our august profession until 1970 to even draft its first codified statement of professional ethics: The Model Code of Professional Responsibility? Despite the lofty rhetoric, our codes of professional ethics are nothing but quasi-penal codes: they define offenses and sanctions for those offenses.

It doesn’t matter what a lawyer–or a law student’s–inner, subjective motivations are. We can only judge from actions and punish harms. Ideally, a lawyer should genuinely wish to do the right thing all the time, for the right reasons. Pragmatically, he does the right thing because the applicable quasi-penal code gives him no other choice but to do so.

The presence of any monitoring during law school exams is an analogous situation. Yes, we would prefer that law students act ethically, of their own accord, and not cheat. But we have no guarantee that they will do so. Thus, we define the offense, proclaim a punishment, and create the means to enforce our will: your hated proctors.

You contend that “attorneys will not have a proctor over their shoulder examining every move they make to ensure that the attorney maintains his ethical obligations.” He doesn’t have to: the threat of punishment should be enough, coupled with the affirmative duty imposed on his fellow attorneys to denounce him for his ethical lapses.

Following your logic, the mere presence of the police is an undue burden on regular citizens. Since each citizen should himself know that it is his duty not to break the law, why maintain a force dedicated to detect and detain lawbreakers?

By: Kaintuckeean

Kaintuckeean — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 21:51:18 +0000

Correction: Yet a few ~~years~~ months before this duty is thrust upon us, law students are not fully trusted.

Not to mention the special software we have to download. Really renders the Honor Codes useless…

By: Law School and Ethics | Pacific Jewish Center | Rabbi

Law School and Ethics | Pacific Jewish Center | Rabbi — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 19:16:17 +0000

[...] short, the argument goes (read here), by testing law students with proctors in the room, law students are not taught how to make [...]

By: Joshua Auriemma

Joshua Auriemma — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 16:43:39 +0000

Good in theory — tough in practice. How do you catch people before they start law school? If people were caught before, presumably it’s in some kind of academic record and will make it difficult for them to get into law school. I imagine that’s pretty much the best we can do.

Also, surely you’re not implying that passing the MPRE isn’t indicative of high moral fiber :D

By: Jessica

Jessica — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 16:05:09 +0000

The exams at my law school actually aren’t proctored. Someone from our Records office oversees the beginning and end of the exam (making sure that we all sign in, get set up with the test, and turn it in afterward) but other than that, nobody is there watching us. We do have the exam software that blocks out all of our other applications, though.