Advocacy And Professional Ethics

Advocacy and Professional Ethics is a practice-focused manual designed to help lawyers, judges and students integrate rigorous ethical standards with effective advocacy. Part I explains the regulatory framework — Bar Council rules, professional conduct codes, disciplinary processes and sanctions — with clause-by-clause notes and annotated disciplinary precedents. Part II addresses everyday ethical dilemmas: client confidentiality and privilege, conflict-of-interest avoidance, fee agreements, withdrawal, duties during negotiations, and duties to third parties and tribunals. Part III is advocacy-centric: pre-trial client management, craft of pleadings and oral submissions, courtroom etiquette, examination techniques, duty of candour, and handling vulnerable witnesses while preserving ethical obligations. The book also covers contemporary topics — lawyering in the age of digital evidence and social media, AML and reporting obligations, mental-health and wellbeing for advocates, and pro-bono ethics and access to justice. Each chapter ends with pragmatic tools: model retainer and revocation templates, sample IC complaints, disciplinary-response templates, checklists for conflict screening, decision flowcharts for ethical choices, and short mock scenarios with suggested ethical resolutions. Written in concise, accessible prose, the volume is aimed at equipping legal professionals to practise with excellence and integrity in complex, real-world settings.