LEGAL ETHICS

principles of conduct that members of the profession are expected to observe in the practice of law. They are an outgrowth of the development of the legal profession itself. Practitioners of law emerged when legal systems became too complex for those affected by them to understand and apply the law. Certain individuals with the required ability mastered the law and offered their skills for hire. No prescribed qualifications existed, and these specialists were not subject to legal controls. The incompetent, unscrupulous, and dishonest charged exorbitant fees, failed to perform as promised, and engaged in delaying and obstructive tactics in the tribunals before which they appeared. Action to prevent such abuses was taken by legislation and by judicial and other governmental measures. The right to practice law came to be limited to those who met prescribed qualifications. Expulsion from practice and criminal penalties were introduced for various types of misconduct. These measures did more than correct the abuses. They also gave recognition to the social importance of the functions performed by lawyers and identified those who were qualified to perform them. A consciousness developed within the profession of the need for standards of conduct. This became the core of legal, or professional, ethics. Prior statutes, court rules, and other government directives remained in force along with the profession's self-imposed ethical standards. Taken together, they constituted the sum total of the restraints placed upon lawyers in regard to their professional conduct. This pattern has continued to the present time. In many countries professional associations of lawyers have sought to commit the principles of ethical conduct to written form, but a written code is not essential. Ethical principles may exist by common understanding as well as in the literature and writings of the profession. This is the case in England. A code, however, makes ethically obligatory principles readily available to the practitioner and thus helps to assure greater observance of them. When such a code does exist, it usually contains both statements of general ethical principles and particular rules governing specific problems of professional ethics. But no code can foresee every ethical problem that may arise in the practice of law. Hence, codes are supplemented by opinions rendered and published by committees of bar associations. Additional reading On the social nature and function of professional ethics, see Robert M. MacIver, The Social Significance of Professional Ethics, Ann. Am. Acad. Polit. Soc. Sci., 297:118124 (January 1955); and Emile Durkheim, Professional Ethics and Civic Morals, trans. by Cornelia Brookfield (1957, reprinted 1983; orginally published in French, 1950). The leading texts on the ethics of the legal profession in the United States are Henry S. Drinker, Legal Ethics (1953, reprinted 1980); and L. Ray Patterson, Legal Ethics: The Law of Professional Responsibility, 2nd ed. (1984). The legal ethics of the Canadian legal profession are dealt with in Mark M. Orkin, Legal Ethics: A Study of Professional Conduct (1957). For the English legal profession, see Sir Thomas Lund, Professional Ethics (1970); and Sir William Boulton, A Guide to Conduct and Etiquette at the Bar of England and Wales, 6th ed. (1975). Information on legal ethics in other countries may be found in Pierre G. Lepaulle, Law Practice in France, Columbia Law Review, 50:945958 (1950); Mauro Cappelletti, John Henry Merryman, and Joseph M. Perillo, The Italian Legal System (1967); Takaaki Hattori, The Legal Profession in Japan: Its Historical Development and Present State, in Arthur T. von Mehren (ed.), Law in Japan (1963); and K. Ohira and G.N. Stevens, Admission to the Bar, Disbarment and Disqualification of Lawyers in Japan and the United States: A Comparative Study, Washington Law Review, 38:2227 (1963). On the subject of contingent fees, see F.B. MacKinnon, Contingent Fees for Legal Services: A Study of Professional Economics and Responsibilities (1964). Specialization in the U.S. legal profession is discussed in Barlow F. Christensen, Specialization (1967). The same author discusses group practice in Group Legal Services (1967); his Lawyers for People of Moderate Means: Some Problems of Availability of Legal Services (1970) covers the subject of fees, specialization, group services, and advertising and solicitation.