BREACH OF PROFESSIONAL

ETHICS BY LAWYERS : CRITICAL

ANALYSIS
RAJ VARDHAN AGARWAL (A90821517066) BBA.LLB(H)
 SHUVRADIP PANDE (A90821517064) BBA.LLB(H)
 MAINAK DAS (A90821517001) BBA.LLB(H)
 RISHAV GUPTA (A90821517057) BBA.LLB(H)
INTRODUCTION
India has the worlds second largest legal profession with more
than 600,000 lawyers . The predominant service providers are
individual lawyers, small or family based firms . Most of the firms
are involved in the issues of domestic law and majority work
under country’s adversarial litigation system. The conception of
legal services as a ‘noble profession’ rather than services resulted
in formulation of stringent and restrictive regulatory machinery.
These regulations have been justified on the grounds of public
policy and ‘dignity of profession’ .
Globalization brought about a revolution in international trade
with increasing participation and involvement of countries &
greater access to domestic economies. The implication of the
same on the legal service sector has been both quantitative and
qualitative.
LAWYERS PROFESSIONAL ETHICS TO STATE AND PUBLIC

Professional ethics are a set of norms or codes of

conduct, set by people in a specific profession. People
are surprised when they hear that lawyers are
expected to follow professional ethics and that they
are accountable for dishonest, irresponsible and
unprofessional behavior. Further, most people do not
know that lawyers in India can lose the license to
practice if they are found guilty of unethical practices
that tarnish the dignity of their profession. A lawyer
must adhere to the professional norms, for fair dealing
with his client and to maintain the dignity of the
profession.
 LAWYERS AND ETHICS
1. Law touches every aspect of life more so in commercialized urban cities.
2. Justice is great interest of man of earth. Justice is a supreme virtue.
3. The legal profession existed in Hindu and Buddhistic times and during
the Mogul Period. The U.S.A. was the first civilized country to formulate
the code of ethics for legal profession.
4. Law streams from Soul of people, like national poetry. It is as holy as
national religion.
5. He who practices law is not merely a lawyer but acts as moral agent and
that character he cannot shake off by any other character on any
professional character.
6. A lawyer shall not act contrary to basic principles of morality and at all
times shall act honestly.
7. The lawyer who is moralist spends sleepless night as his conscience
pricks him in many ways.
8. Advocacy is the respectable noble profession on the principles.
9. The Advocate owes duty to the client, court, to the society and to the profession.
10. The Advocate owes a very substantial duty to the person who puts his life,
liberty, finances, reputation, or general happiness into his hands.
11. When counseling the client, a lawyer can and should express his opinions fully
and frankly about all aspects of the case, legal and ethical.
12. In giving the advice, he should act honestly and in good faith and shall not take
advantages of ignorance of the client.
13. An Advocate shall not deal with the client's property so as to acquire any
interest for personal benefit or gain by taking advantage of confidence, repose in
him by his client.
14. An Advocate shall conduct himself with due dignity and self-respect.
15. He shall not render any services or give advice to imply disrespect to the
establishment of judiciary.
16. the Advocate shall uphold the Constitution, helping the maintenance of the
rules and of law, promote the advancement of justice and assist in the
enforcement of fundamental rights of the people.
17. an Advocate towards the profession is that he shall not speak ill of the
profession but shall conduct himself in a such a way as to enhance regard, respect
sympathy and strive to maintain the honour and dignity of the profession.
 CONFIDENTIALITY CLAUSE BETWEEN LAWYERS AND CLIENT

The non- disclosure agreement is entered between parties to

prevent the disclosure of any information shared between them.
The agreement can be both unilateral or bilateral. The agreement
template below is a unilateral agreement, between the Advocate
and the client. The Non-Disclosure Agreement is also called
"Confidentiality Agreement". There are certain pre requisites to
this agreement.
1) All information which is not to be disclosed, has to be clearly and
unambiguously mentioned.
2) The agreement must be understood and consented by the parties.
3) The agreement must not be too rigid and should be reasonable.
4) In order to prevent long years of court battle in the case of a
dispute, the clause of arbitration or mediation should be added.
 BREACH OF PROFESSIONAL ETHICS BY LAWYERS

An advocate is the most accountable, privileged and erudite person

of the society and his act are role model for the society, which are
necessary to be regulated. Professional misconduct is the behaviour
outside the bounds of what is considered acceptable or worthy of its
membership by the governing body of a profession. The following are
some examples of breach of professional ethics by lawyers:-
1. The Code Of Conduct Prescribed For An Advocate
2. No advertising or soliciting work
3. Not demand fees for training
4. Duty to opposite party
5. Duties of an advocate towards his client
6. Procedure Followed On The Notice Of Professional Misconduct
7. Contempt Of Court As Misconduct
 SC Bar Association v. Union of India
In the case of SC Bar Association v. Union of India it has been held
that professional misconduct may also amount to Contempt of Court
(para 21). It has further been held as follows: “An Advocate who is
found guilty of contempt of court may also, as already noticed, be
guilty of professional misconduct in a given case but it is for the Bar
Council of the State or Bar Council of India to punish that advocate by
either debarring him from practice or suspending his licence, as may
be warranted, in the facts and circumstances of each case. The learned
Solicitor General informed us that there have been cases where the Bar
Council of India taking note of the contumacious and objectionable
conduct of an advocate, had initiated disciplinary proceedings against
him and even punished him for “professional misconduct”, on the basis
of his having been found guilty of committing contempt of court.”
Rajendra V. Pai Vs. Alex Fernandes and Ors.
Rajendra V. Pai Vs. Alex Fernandes and Ors. the court held that debarring
a person from pursuing his career for his life is an extreme punishment
and calls for caution and circumspection before being passed. No doubt
probity and high standards of ethics and morality in professional career
particularly of an advocate must be maintained and cases of proved
professional misconduct severely dealt with; yet, we strongly feel that the
punishment given to the appellant in the totality of facts and
circumstances of the case is so disproportionate as to prick the
conscience of the Court. Excepting the instance forming gravamen of the
charge against the appellant there does not appear to have been any
other occasion where the appellant may have defaulted or misconducted
himself. Undoubtedly, the appellant should not have indulged into
prosecuting or defending a litigation in which he had a personal interest
in view of his family property being involved.
CONCLUSION

After ruling that breach of professional conduct by

lawyers was unacceptable, the Supreme Court on
Monday accepted apologies from a group of
advocates to save them from undergoing six months in
jail for abusing a Faridabad judge in open court in
1999.It was senior advocate Ram Jethmalani’s
pleadings — the lawyers were sincere in their
apologies to the high court as well as to the trial court
judge and have undertaken never to repeat the
conduct – that saved the erring advocates from prison
term awarded to them by the Punjab and Haryana HC.