Legal Ethics

Ethics is the term applied to all aspects of the conduct of lawyers to their clients, their colleagues, the bench and the legal system generally. From the beginnings of the organized bar, ethics has been an important component of the attributes which make a person an attorney. Today, ethical standards and “rules” come from a variety of sources.

Black’s Law Dictionary defines “ethics” as that branch of moral science which treats of the duties which a member of the legal profession owes to the public, to the court, to his professional brethren, and to his client.

Where does one find ethics “rules” or standards:
Inherent power of the courts to regulate lawyers: This and the efforts of the original organized bar to “maintain standards” is the origin of all formal ethics standards. In this country, the notion that legislatures, as the representative voice of “the people,” as the supreme source of control over lawyers and the ethical standards to which they are to be held emerged after the American Revolution.