Having strong ethics as a lawyer is incredibly significant. This is because when a case is at stake, it’s critical for lawyers to provide evidence that their client is ethical and didn’t do something incorrectly. Obviously, these ethical conducts differ from case to case because each client is different. However, from a lawyer’s point of view, it’s critical to remain unbiased and ethical during any jurisdiction. Diego Ruiz Duran, says that it’s important for a lawyer to have ethical standards even before they choose law as a career. Getting involved in a case on a personal level is never an option for a lawyer because it goes against the codes put in place by governments. The American Bar association has created the Model Rules of Professional Conduct which addresses topics about the client-lawyer relationships, dealing with people other than contracted clients, the suits to uphold as a lawyer, the associations between law firms, marketing, and keeping integrity throughout a career. It’s clear that lawyers have a lot of pressure to be perfect. If they don’t follow these rules, there will be disciplinary action that will occur.
Ethics is derived from the greek word “ethos”, which translates to character. This is still very much used by millions of lawyers around the world. The ideology behind being ethical is not on a circumstantial timeline. When a lawyer is designated to a case, they’re ethics should never be in question. Even back in the B.C. era, there were laws that were developed regarding ethics. The Code of Hammurabi, made bribery a crime. This obviously ended up being more specified as time went on, but it’s obvious that people had these ethical codes to uphold since the first recognition of law on this planet. In modern society, many people try to push the deviation of these laws in order for their actions to still seem ethical. Nevertheless, that is why good lawyers who have high morals will make sure to only represent clients that have done ethical actions. There will be times in every lawyer’s career that will make them question their ethics. As long as they are doing what they can for their clients and regulating the case to the best of their abilities, much can be done.
The Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination is a forty-year-old exam that tests lawyers to be on their professional responsibilities. This includes confidentiality, avoiding conflict of interest, due diligence, avoid commingling, avoiding self-dealing, effective assistance, disclosure of perjury, adverse authority disclosure, and so much more. Once lawyers pass the examination, they can continue their work and make a case for their clients to the best of their abilities. Diego Ruiz Duran encourages all lawyers to take this examination as early in their careers as possible.