Code of Professional Conduct Preface

The legal profession has developed over the centuries to meet a public need for legal services on a professional basis. Traditionally, this has involved the provision of advice and representation to protect or advance the rights, liberties and property of a client by a trusted adviser with whom the client has a personal relationship and whose integrity, competence and loyalty are assured.²

In order to satisfy this need for legal services adequately, lawyers and the quality of service they provide must command the confidence and respect of the public. This can only be achieved if lawyers establish and maintain a reputation for both integrity and high standards of legal skill and care. The lawyers of many countries in the world, despite differences in their legal systems, practices, procedures and customs, have all imposed upon themselves substantially the same basic standards. Those standards invariably place their main emphasis on integrity and competence.

The Legislature has entrusted responsibility for maintaining standards of professional conduct and discipline for lawyers to the Benchers of The Law Society of Saskatchewan. This responsibility is carried out through the Rules of the Law Society, this Code and the discipline process.

The Legal Profession Act, 1990, describes the conduct which subjects a lawyer to discipline. A lawyer may be disciplined for "conduct unbecoming". This is an act or conduct inimical to the best interests of the public or the members of the society; or, which tends to harm the standing of the legal profession.³

With these exceptions the Act and Rules do not specify the conduct which would subject a lawyer to discipline. This Code does not define conduct unbecoming. That responsibility is given under the Act to committees of the Benchers. However, the duties stated in this Code are relied on by the Benchers in making Professional Conduct Rulings and violations have been the basis for findings of conduct unbecoming by hearing committees. The rules, principles and commentaries are intended both to provide general guidance and prohibit some forms of conduct.

The essence of professional responsibility is that the lawyer must act at all times uberrimae fidei, with utmost good faith to the court, to the client, to other lawyers, and to members of the public. Given the many and varied demands to which the lawyer is subject, it is inevitable that problems will arise. No set of rules can foresee every possible situation, but the ethical principles set out in the Code are intended to provide a framework within which the lawyer may, with courage and dignity, provide the high quality of legal services that a complex and ever-changing society demands.⁴.

The extent to which each lawyer's conduct should rise above the minimum standards set by the Code is a matter of personal decision. The lawyer who would enjoy the respect and confidence of the community as well as of other members of the legal profession must strive to maintain the highest possible degree of ethical conduct. The greatness and strength of the legal profession depend on high standards of professional conduct that permit no compromise.

The Code of Professional Conduct is to be understood and applied in the light of the public interest, which is its primary purpose. This principle is implicit in the legislative grant of self-government. The application of the Code to the diverse situations that confront an active professional in a changing society will reveal gaps, ambiguities and apparent inconsistencies. The Code should not be construed as a denial of the existence of other duties equally imperative although not mentioned. The principle of protection of the public interest will serve to guide the practitioner to the intent of the Code and the applicable principles of ethical conduct.

The lawyer is more than a mere citizen. The lawyer is an officer of the courts, the client's adviser and advocate and a member of an ancient, honourable and learned profession. The lawyer's duty is to promote the public interest, serve the cause of justice, maintain the authority of the law, be faithful to the client's trust, be candid and courteous with others and be true to good conscience.

NOTES

The footnotes relate the provisions of the Code to pertinent earlier Codes, rulings, by-laws, statutes, judicial dicta, text books and articles, as well as to certain other materials. They are not exhaustive. (Return to Preface)
"The core of the proposition is that problems of . . . rights or property call for a personal relationship with a trusted adviser, whose discretion is absolute, who serves no master but his client, and whose competence is assured. The codes and traditions of the professions who supply these services support the basic proposition. They also display the uniformity that its truth would lead one to expect." Bennion, p. 16. (Return to Preface)
The Legal Profession Act, 1990, c. L-10.1, 2(1)(c)
Cordery on Solicitors, 7th ed. 1981, p. 333:
". . . because he has been guilty of an act or omission for which the Act or some other statute prescribes that penalty, or because he has committed an act of misconduct which renders him unfit to be permitted to continue in practice."

. . . p. 335: "Misconduct which makes a solicitor unfit to continue in practice may be divided into three kinds: criminal conduct, professional misconduct and unprofessional conduct."

. . . p. 336: "The jurisdiction is not limited to cases where the misconduct charged amounts to an indictable offence, or is professional in character, but extends to all cases where the solicitor's conduct is 'unprofessional', i.e., such as renders him unfit to be an officer of the court." (Return to Preface, paragraph 4)
"The law and its institutions change as social conditions change. They must change if they are to preserve, much less advance, the political and social values from which they derive their purposes and their life. This is true of the most important of legal institutions, the profession of law. The profession, too, must change when conditions change in order to preserve and advance the social values that are its reason for being." Cheatham, Availability of Legal Services: The Responsibility of the Individual Lawyer and the Organized Bar (1965) 12 U.C.L.A.L. Rev. 438, 440. (Return to Preface, paragraph 6)
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