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Lawyers, especially the young ones, have been called upon not to only use their profession to help administer justice but contribute to building a society that respects values and rules.
Thaddeus Sory, a Private Legal Practitioner, who made the call, said lawyers had a duty to lead society to understand that the Court uses evidence, rules and procedures to serve justice.
Sory said this at the first edition of Fiona’s Conversations, an educative law programme designed to create a path of learning and adherence to ethical standards in the legal profession.
Sory, a former Counsel for the Electoral Commission of Ghana, said society kept growing with the notion that lawyers were deceitful and liars, could manipulate and even circumvent the legal system and proceeding all because of what they had been telling their clients, media and in recent times social media.
“Some lawyers think we need to impress our clients in this game. And so clients get the impression that there is no law and could do anything at all to get a good result. Society is the utmost loser and we hear people saying that there is no justice,” he said.
He said such a mentality had emboldened some clients to say “Do you know the judge? And I ask what my knowledge of the judge has got to do with this case, if knowledge of the judge is important then why are you here.”
Speaking on the topic “The Need for Ethical Considerations in the legal vocation,” Sory said it was also required that lawyers should be honest and candid in whatever they do as stipulated In rules 35, 63 and 83 LI 2423.”
He said some clients could tell their lawyers to go for an adjournment or injunction without any grounded considerations. He urged that such an impression should not be given to people at any point in time that they could just go to court and get an injunction.
Mr Sory said lawyers also had a responsibility to be courteous and diligent towards their clients by avoiding offensive language, and provocative language and ensuring that all correspondents with them were courteous.
“As a lawyer, you are not allowed to record a conversation between you and the client or any other lawyer without the person’s consent or approval of that client or the other lawyer. You also have to make sure that you appear in court,” he said.
He urged lawyers to maximise any opportunity to settle cases but in doing so one must disclose all of the facts and settlement proposal to their clients to take a decision no matter how small or unreasonable it would be.
Madam Fiona Asafu-Adjaye, Private Legal Practitioner and Convener of Fiona’s Conversations, said, the programme was to bring legal practitioners together to share ideas and have conversations about how to get young practitioners to be very astute and enhance their professional abilities.
“The first edition touches on ethics and it is just the beginning of a series of educational legal programmes in the coming years. We really want to understand more the need for ethical considerations as legal practitioners,” she said.