Professional Conduct

2009 | 2010 | 2011

Area/catalogue: LAWS 4006
Course ID: 101575

Campus/course component(s):
City West: Lecture — Tutorial
Note: These components may or may not be scheduled in every study period. Please refer to the timetable for further details.

Unit value: 4.5

Offered externally: No

Undergraduate elective course: No

Course details

Prerequisite(s): Nil

Corequisite(s): Nil

The focus of this course is on the responsibilities of the legal profession in South Australia. This requires an understanding of:

What constitutes a profession;
The particular attributes of the legal profession;
The legal and equitable responsibilities of members of the legal profession;
Why ethical analysis is important in understanding the obligations associated with legal practice;
The professional and ethical standards required of the profession; and
The disciplinary processes governing the profession and the institutional framework within which the profession is regulated.

These questions need to be understood in the context of the legal profession in Australia generally and of its origins in England. A number of the rules in underpinning professional responsibility will have already been considered in other courses: for example contractual and tortious obligations. Although there will be limited reference to these, the emphasis in this course is upon obligations arising under the legislation that applies to the legal profession and upon the ethical principles applicable to the legal profession in general.

The content of this course is divided into seven parts as follows:

Part 1

What is a profession?

The responsibilities of a professional person

The responsibilities of a professional lawyer:

Legal;
Professional;
Ethical;

The source of these responsibilities:

Legislation, including:

Legal Profession (Barristers) Rule 2004;
Legal Profession (Solicitors) Rule 2005 (currently in draft form);
The common law; and
The personal morality of the practitioner.

Part 2

The legal profession:

Its history in England;
Its history in Australia and South Australia;
A divided or a unified profession;
The structure of the legal profession in South Australia.

Part 3

The regulation of the legal profession in South Australia.

The institutions regulating the legal profession in South Australia:

The Supreme Court
The Bar Association;
The South Australia Law Society;
The Legal Services Commission;

Admission into the legal profession; eligibility and qualifications.

Procedures for making complaints about lawyers.

Disciplinary proceedings.

Removal from the profession.

Part 4

The required standards of professional conduct

The common law and professional negligence

Statutory standards:

Trusts Accounts Act 1973
Queensland Law Society Act 1952;
Legal Profession Act 2004.

Ethical standards of the profession.

Part 5

Duties owed to the client:

Confidentiality and privilege;
Conflict of interest;
Diligence and competence;
Clients money.

Part 6

Duties to the administration of justice:

The adversary system;
Fairness and candour in respect of the Court.

Part 7

Accounting for clients money:

The purpose of trust accounts;
The requirements of trust accounts;
The practicalities of trust accounts.

Text book/s:

Ross Y 2010, Ethics in Law Lawyers Responsibility and Accountability in Australia, 5th ed, Lexis-Nexis.

Course coordinator/s:

Ms Rachel Spencer

Fee information for this course

EFTSL: 0.125

Please note all EFTSL values are published and calculated at ten decimal places. Values are displayed to three decimal places for ease of interpretation.

UniSA offers courses to students either:

as part of a Commonwealth Supported program
as part of a postgraduate fee-paying program
as part of a program for fee-paying international students
as a non-award enrolment

Not all courses are available on all of these bases, and students must check to ensure that they are permitted to enroll in a particular course.

International students and students undertaking this course as part of a postgraduate fee paying program must refer to the relevant program home page to determine the applicable cost for undertaking this course.

Non-award tuition fees are set by the Division offering the course. How to determine the relevant non award tuition fee

The student contribution amount for students enrolling in this course as part of the requirements of a program for which they are Commonwealth Supported may be determined below:

Commonwealth Supported Band Amount: Band 3A
How to determine your Commonwealth Supported course fee (student contribution)

Learning resources for this course

Resources specific to this course

General learning resources available through the Learning and Teaching Unit

Course evaluation online – student access only

Course evaluation online – staff access only

Assignment submission online

Open AssignIT

General Library resources

Support resources for this course

Technical/computer assistance

Administrative services

Campus Central
myUniSA
Class Timetable (Study Period 2 - 2010)
Class Timetable (Study Period 6 - 2010)
More information about textbooks is available from Unibooks (clicking on the Unibooks logo will take you out of the University's web site)

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