For the Public

Common Concerns

Lawyer's Outside Interests

Lawyers have the right to have outside interests and personal lives just like everyone else. However, there are times where the lawyer's outside interests or personal activities may affect the lawyer's professional life such that the lawyer's conduct may be the subject of a review by the Law Society.  The following sections of the Code of Professional Conduct discuss outside interests:

Chapter I:

Disciplinary Action

3. Dishonourable or questionable conduct on the part of the lawyer in either private life or professional practice will reflect adversely upon the lawyer, the integrity of the legal profession and the administration of justice as a whole. If the conduct, whether within or outside the professional sphere, is such that knowledge of it would be likely to impair the client's trust in the lawyer as a professional consultant, a governing body may be justified in taking disciplinary action.

Non-professional Activities

4. Generally speaking, however, a governing body will not be concerned with the purely private or extra-professional activities of a lawyer that do not bring into question the integrity of the legal profession or the lawyer's professional integrity or competence.

Chapter VII:

3. Where the outside interest is in no way related to the legal services being performed for clients, ethical considerations will usually not arise unless the lawyer's conduct brings either the lawyer or the profession into disrepute, or impairs the lawyer's competence as, for example, where the outside interest occupies so much time that clients suffer because of the lawyer's lack of attention or preparation.

For example, a lawyer who is charged with and/or convicted of a criminal offence, particularly one involving integrity, may be reviewed despite the fact that the offence occurred in the lawyer's personal life. If such a criminal offence suggested that the lawyer's clients may be at any risk, the lawyer's conduct may be the subject of review. As well, all matters will be reviewed through the lens of public confidence and whether the conduct may bring the profession into disrepute.