Ethics checks for law firms
start at the explanatory notes
go straight to instructions for survey managers at participating law firms
go straight to the surveys
go straight to the survey results
Explanatory notes
The law is not only a profession but a business. Lawyers sell legal services for profit within commercial enterprises and law firms like other commercial enterprises have workplace cultures that shape the ethical standards of the people who work for them, for better or worse.
It follows then, if we're serious about promoting high standards of conduct within the profession, that we should pay serious attention to helping law firms develop and maintain workplace cultures or 'ethical infrastructures' that enable them to deliver legal services to those high standards.
A law firm's ethical infrastructure includes not only its formal policies and procedures but the unwritten rules that also help determine what happens in the workplace - the values, attitudes, practices, incentives, disincentives and leadership behaviours explicitly stated or otherwise that motivate and sustain its employees to conduct themselves ethically or alternatively that leave them to their own ethical devices or worse, by actually encouraging them to conduct themselves unethically.
We have developed what we hope will be a varied and ever-expanding suite of short, sharp web-based surveys which allow law firms to audit their ethical infrastructure. The surveys are a "work in progress" and an exercise in "learning by doing". We expect not only to continually add to them but to continually improve them by seeking and incorporating feedback from interested individuals and participating law firms.
The surveys comply fully with the relevant national ethical standards. They take less than 30 minutes to complete and are completely confidential. They are designed to preserve the anonymity both of the individuals who complete a survey and their firm - we are simply not able to identify individual respondents and we have structured the surveys to allow law firms to remain anonymous also, if that is their wish.
We hope and expect, if we get the questions right, that everyone who completes a survey will be prompted to reflect on the significance of the questions and the implications of their answers both for them as individuals and their firms.
The surveys will work best, however, if everyone at a law firm completes them or, in larger firms, if at least significant samples of the different levels and classifications of their employees complete the surveys - senior lawyers, junior lawyers and support staff.
That will allow firms to check how their policies and procedures and systems are perceived and understood and implemented 'down the line' by the different levels and classifications of their staff and, if they have more than one office, by the staff at each of their different offices. That will be a rich source of information and a handy indicator of the consistency of the firm's ethical culture. It might be reassuring or on the other hand might identify some areas that could do with some improvement. And that of course is the point.
We will treat the survey results as strictly confidential. We will not know which law firms have participated in the surveys unless they choose to tell us (or unless they are an incorporated legal practice and have undertaken a survey as a form of compliance audit - see below). We most certainly will not publish any information that identifies or might tend to identify any particular law firm, without the firm's consent, even if we know the firm's identity.
We will however publish and continually update the aggregated and non-identifiable results so that firms can compare their results with the results of other like firms and the results overall. That will be a rich source of information for law firms and will serve the public interest also by exposing aspects of law firm culture to public scrutiny.
We believe the surveys will be helpful to all law firms that want to test or review their ethical 'health' and we encourage firms to try them out.
We have no powers in relation to law firms generally but we do have powers pursuant to section 130 of the Legal Profession Act 2007 to undertake compliance audits of incorporated legal practices. We plan to use the surveys as one of a number of ways we will exercise those powers. We hope and expect, if other law firms opt to undertake the surveys also, to compare the aggregated and non-identifiable results and in that way to learn whether and how the different business structures and regulatory regimes influence ethical attitudes and conduct.
Instructions for survey managers at participating law firms
Some people will choose to complete the surveys simply as interested individuals. We hope and expect that they will find the exercise rewarding. The surveys come into their own however when law firms complete them as a corporate exercise, as a firm, whether as an entirely voluntary exercise or a form of compliance audit pursuant to section 130 of the Legal Profession Act 2007.
It is imperative that participating law firms appoint a survey manager to oversee the process including by explaining it to the firm's employees. It is not a difficult or time consuming role but it's crucial to the success of the exercise and best fulfilled by someone who has management authority within the firm (a senior partner or legal practitioner director, for example) or someone who is acting with clear delegated authority to see the process through to completion.
Instructions for survey managers at participating (volunteer) law firms
Instructions for employees at participating (volunteer) law firms
Instructions for survey managers at ILPs undertaking a compliance audit
Instructions for employees at ILPs undertaking a compliance audit
The Commission welcomes inquiries from law firms that may be considering participating in a survey and from people who have been appointed their firm’s Survey Manager. We will be happy to deal with queries on a no-names basis if inquirers prefer to remain anonymous.
Simply ring 07 3406 7737 and ask for the Practice Compliance Manager.
The surveys
Workplace culture check This survey is based on the Ethical culture check survey which we ran as a pilot project. That survey had its origins in research findings to the effect that organisations have a stronger ethical culture if their staff respond affirmatively to questions like the following but are vulnerable if they respond negatively: do employees feel a sense of responsibility and accountability for their actions?; do they freely raise issues and concerns with their supervisors without fear of retaliation?; do managers model the behaviour they demand of their employees?; do managers communicate the importance of integrity when making difficult decisions?
Click Workplace culture check to go to the on-line survey
Click for a printed version of this survey
Click Ethics checks for law firms-the survey results to see the survey results to date
Billing practices (medium to large law firms)
We designed this survey having regard to the issues we encounter daily in our complaints driven work. We 'road-tested' an earlier version with one of the large national law firms and were encouraged by the firm's response - the managing partner of its Brisbane office told us 'the survey was a very useful reminder of the issues that arise in best billing practice. It has prompted us to review our own management systems to see how effectively they deliver best billing practice and given us some very good ideas as to how to improve our systems.'
Click Billing practices (medium to large law firms) to go to the on-line survey
Click for a printed version of this survey
Click View Ethics checks for law firms-the survey results to see the survey results to date
Complaints management systems
All law firms should have effective systems for dealing with complaints by clients, staff, other law firms, and anyone else. We know from the complaints we receive at the Commission that most of them could have been avoided if only the law firms subject to complaint had kept and implemented appropriate systems that encourage and allowed disgruntled clients and others to have their concerns dealt with and wherever possible resolved in-house.
Click Complaints management systems to go to the on-line survey
Click for a printed version of this survey
Click View Ethics checks for law firms-the survey results to see the survey results to date