Code of Professional Conduct Chapter 1

The lawyer shall discharge with integrity all duties owed to the clients, the court, other members of the profession and the public.¹

1. Integrity is the fundamental quality of any person who seeks to practice as a member of the legal profession. If the client is in any doubt about the lawyer's trustworthiness the essential element in the lawyer-client relationship will be missing. If personal integrity is lacking the lawyer's usefulness to the client and reputation within the profession will be destroyed regardless of how competent the lawyer may be.²

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.³ 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.⁴

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.

NOTES

Cf. CBA-COD 1. O.E.D.: "Integrity...soundness of moral principle, esp. in relation to truth and fair dealing; uprightness, honesty, sincerity, candour."
Cf. IBA. "Introductory". "The rules of professional conduct enforced in various countries...uniformly place the main emphasis upon the essential need for integrity and, thereafter, upon the duties owed by a lawyer to his client, to the Court, to other members of the legal profession and to the public at large." (Return to Rule)
"Integrity, probity or uprightness is a prized quality in almost every sphere of life.... The best assurance the client can have...is the basis integrity of the professional consultant.... Sir Thomas Lund says that...his reputation is the greatest asset a solicitor can have.... A reputation for integrity is an indivisible whole; it can therefore be lost by actions having little or nothing to do with the profession.... Integrity has many aspects and may be displayed (or not) in a wide variety of situations...the preservation of confidences, the display of impartiality, the taking of full responsibility are all aspects of integrity So is the question of competence.... Integrity is the fundamental quality, whose absence vitiates all others." Bennion, passim, pp. 108-12 (emphasis added). (Return to Commentary 1)
Illustrations of conduct that may infringe the Rule (and often other provisions of this Code) include:
1. committing any personally disgraceful or morally reprehensible offence that reflects upon the lawyer's integrity (whereof a conviction by a competent court would be prima facie evidence);
2. committing, whether professionally or in the lawyer's personal capacity, any act of fraud or dishonesty, e.g., by knowingly making a false tax return or falsifying a document, even without fraudulent intent, and whether or not prosecuted therefor;
3. making untrue representations or concealing material facts from a client with dishonest or improper motives;
4. taking improper advantage of the youth, inexperience, lack of education or sophistication, ill health, or unbusinesslike habits of a client;
5. misappropriating or dealing dishonestly with the client's monies;
6. receiving monies from or on behalf of a client expressly for a specific purpose and failing, without the client's consent, to pay them over for that purpose;
7. knowingly assisting, enabling or permitting any person to act fraudulently, dishonestly or illegally toward the lawyer's client;
8. failing to be absolutely frank and candid in all dealings with the Court, fellow lawyers and other parties to proceedings, subject always to not betraying the client's cause, abandoning the client's legal rights or disclosing the client's confidences;
9. failing, when dealing with a person not legally represented, to disclose material facts, e.g., the existence of a mortgage on a property being sold, or supplying false information, whether the lawyer is professionally representing a client or is concerned personally;
10. failure to honour the lawyer's word when pledged even though, under technical rules, the absence of writing might afford a legal defence.
Other examples are specifically dealt with in subsequent chapters.

(The foregoing are drawn largely from IBA A-A to A-24 and from disciplinary records. For illustrative cases in the same area see, e.g., 36 Halsbury (3d) pp. 222-26 and Orkin, pp. 204-14. In Re Weare (1893), 2 Q.B. 439 (C.A.) the striking off of a solicitor who had knowingly rented his premises for use as a brothel was upheld by the Court.)

As to the distinction between "professional misconduct" and "unprofessional conduct" in disciplinary proceedings, see note 3 to the Preface, supra. (Return to Commentary 3)
Cf. IBA, Chapter 2.
"The public looks for a hallmark bestowed by a trusted professional body, and evidenced by entry on a register or members' list." (p. 36). "Membership of a...professional body is generally treated as an indication of good character in itself...", Bennion, p. 111. (Return to Commentary 3)