Lessons from America: How Modern Law Schools Should be Teaching Legal Ethics

Abstract

This paper critiques different approaches to the teaching legal ethics in the law school environment by comparing the approach taken in three different educational jurisdictions: Australia, Canada and the United States. This paper outlines the historically difficult task of teaching the concepts of ethics and professional responsibility to law students in an engaging and meaningful way. It argues that, despite these difficulties, legal ethics should be considered one of the most important subjects taught at law school, not least because it is one of the only shared substantial and methodological topics across different practice areas. Further, this paper argues that a solid grounding in ‘ethical principles’ (as well as professional rules) is vital to equip young lawyers to make sound ethical choices as practitioners. This paper then critiques traditional classroom seminar models for ethics teaching as insufficient and unsuited to preparing law students for the challenges of legal practice, noting that the majority of law schools in Canada still favour this approach, as do most schools in Australia. This paper provides a relevant history of legal ethics teaching in the American context, notes the recommendations of the 2007 Carnegie Report into legal education reform, and examines on the movement in some US law schools to combine sophisticated experiential learning methods with academic reflection and professorial guidance as the optimal method for ethics instruction. This paper reflects on the author’s experience as a young lawyer practicing in Australia and recommends this approach as best able to meet the growing ethical issues facing practitioners today.