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Exam (elaborations) LJU4802 - Professional Ethics Past Exam Question Papers and Solutions (from Nov2017-Nov2020)
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Exam (elaborations) LJU4802 - Professional Ethics
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LJU4802: PROFESSIONAL ETHICSEXAM PACK
QUESTION PAPERS & ANSWERS
FROM NOVEMBER 2017 TO NOVEMBER 2020
,QUESTION 1
Most legal practitioners run their practices like a business. Do you agree with this
statement? Motivate your answer AND also explain what makes a lawyer a ‘good’
lawyer.
Yes, I agree with this statement. Kronmann finds that many people enter the legal
profession “because it offers great opportunities for wealth and prestige”. Thus it is often
the quest for money and honour which prompts people to choose the legal profession.
An honest admission by those who choose the legal profession as an instrument for the
acquisition of wealth and honour may be criticised for being outright selfish. The core of
this criticism is that such a lawyer does not really care about the law in the first place.
Rather his or her concern for the law is subordinate to using the law as an instrument to
acquire those things that he or she values above all, such as a good life or prestige.
What makes a lawyer a ‘good’ lawyer?
Core values that make up a good lawyer
1. Honesty and trustworthiness
In acting on behalf of the client, you have the obligation to be honest to the client, to
the court, to other lawyers, and to third parties and society in general. To be honest
is to be willing to disclose not only a part of but the whole truth you know about a
particular situation. Withholding some information, even for a good reason, does not
measure up to the requirement of full disclosure. You can avoid lying by keeping
silent, but in doing so, you fail to be candid. Consequently, you may not claim to
have acted honestly where you deliberately avoided making a full disclosure.
Furthermore, to argue that since professionals lie not in their own interests but in the
interests of their clients and that it, therefore, does not amount to dishonesty, is
problematic. In our opinion, to be an honest lawyer means to be ready and willing to
make a full disclosure at all times. An exception to this is your obligation to protect
the privacy of your client. The professional privilege of a client’s communications is a
legal doctrine which provides that professionals cannot be required to reveal client
confidences in a court of law. Underlying this doctrine is the notion that clients would
not be able to trust professionals who have violated the confidentiality of their
communications.
In order to be trustworthy and honest it is important for you as a legal practitioner to
foresee and avoid a situation in which there is a conflict of interests. This may arise,
for example, where you have a financial interest in the subject matter of a case you
conduct. The point, though, is that you are in the first place under no obligation to
accept a client’s mandate. Therefore, it is your choice whether or not to abide by the
demands of trustworthiness and honesty in specific situations.
, There is an essential connection between honesty and truthfulness. To be honest is
to be truthful. The obligation to be trustworthy and honest permeates all areas of
your relationship with others. This includes your relationship with other practitioners,
the courts and the public.
2. Good judgment
Kronman is of the view that it is a mark of bad judgment to enter the legal profession
solely in search of wealth and prestige at the expense of justice and the public good.
He suggests that you need to choose law as a career from among other careers.
Kronman is of the view that the choice of a legal career is a moral permissible one.
Kronman finds that many people enter the legal profession because it offers great
opportunities for wealth and prestige. It is thus often the quest of money and honour
which prompts people to choose the legal profession. He is of the view that an
honest admission by those who choose the legal profession as an instrument for the
acquisition of wealth may be crticised for being outright selfish. Such lawyer does
not care really care about the law in the first place. Rather his or her concern for the
law is subordinate to using the law as an instrument to acquire those things that he
or she values above all, such as good life or prestige. It must be noted that,
Kronman’s argument is that to practice law well requires not only formal knowledge
of the law but certain qualities of mind and temperament as well. He further states
that to be a to be a lawyer is to be a person of a particular sort, a person with a
distinctive set of character traits as well as an expertise. By choosing the law as a
profession, one tends to become a certain kind of person.
Character traits required by Kronman for one to be a lawyer and not just a careerist
without the soul of a lawyer:
Public-spiritedness
It means that one chooses the legal profession based on his/her commitment to the
public good. The law is seen as a means or instrument to promote and protect
something outside and above you, namely the public good. There are different
meanings and views regarding the public good. Kronman makes the following three
point in this regard:
If you do not have a sense of public-spiritedness, you are to some extent a
“professional failure.” You are a failure because you are unable to recognize and
appreciate that along with your status and profession should come the promotion
and protection of the public good in a rather special way.
Some of you may seek more than the general promotion of the public good. You
may find fulfillment by becoming involved in politics, for example. This should not
be contrary to the pursuit of the public good, but it is rather a way of working for
the public good by placing special emphasis on political engagement.
If you choose the legal profession purely for reasons of public-spiritedness, then
you regard law as an instrument for the attainment of some public good. Law will
then remain an instrument even though it might not be used for selfish purposes.
, Kronman further states that exercising your judgment, whether good or bad, involves
a number of complex and interrelated elements, including deduction and intuition.
Deductive reasoning is an indispensable element of forming a particular judgment.
But in itself it is not sufficient since not all situations allow for a single conclusion or
decision.
Intuition
In simple terms, to have an intuition is simply to see that something is the case, to
apprehend its obviousness in the same direct way that you apprehend, for example,
the physical shape of the room in which you are at present setting. However, to
understand judgment as intuition can be discouraging in the sense that the non-
reflective character of intuition means that either you have it or you don’t. Intuition is
therefore a disposition or talent. It cannot be acquired by some special effort. It must
also be noted that since intuition is a gift, those without such a gift cannot develop a
virtuous character through their own efforts.
Double relationship
According to Kronman, judgment demands that we picture or imagine the situation in
which we will find ourselves should we take a particular decision. The projected
situation is a picture of a double relationship. He further states that in order to make
the transition from an imaginary to a real relationship with ourselves we must answer
the question: “Can we live with it?” “I” involves both the individual and those in his or
her network of relationships. The other people involved in the imagined situation
from the second arm of the double relationship. Therefore “I” must take into
consideration both my feelings about the projected new situation and the feelings of
those with whom he or she will interact……..
…..Kronman uses the word detachment to describe the above mentioned situation.
The person faced with a hard choice must give each alternative its due, he must
entertain all the possibilities by feeling for himself what is most attractive in each. But
he must do this while withholding his commitment to any.
According to Kronman, deliberation culminates in the making of a specific choice.
This means, for example, that on the basis of deliberation you may choose to remain
in the present thereby rejecting the imaginary new situation of the future or to do the
opposite, that is, reject the present and turn the imaginary new situation of the future
into your actual reality. By choosing the one or the other, you are basically
answering the question: “Can I live with it?” The answer is very important because it
may result either in the enrichment of personal integrity or in personal disintegration
and regret. To be able to live with yourself, to show “fellow feeling” towards yourself
through the choices you make, is a mark of good judgment which leaves you
pleased and satisfied to live by such a judgment.
This is the core of integrity. But choosing what you cannot live with is the mark of
bad judgment and leads to the destruction of your integrity, sorrow and remorse.
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