In-house solicitors are being invited to get involved in the next phase of the Law Society’s work to produce an ethical practice framework.
As part of a professional ethics programme announced last year, the Law Society has been working with the Inter-Disciplinary Ethics Applied Centre at the University of Leeds to create the new resource to support in-house solicitors.
In April, in-house solicitors were asked to complete a 15-minute survey on their day-to-day challenges. Now, they are being invited to focus group discussions and one-to-one interviews.
Society president Nick Emmerson said: ‘Over the past four months, the IDEA Centre has carried out research to identify the challenges faced by the in-house community, explore potential solutions and define the scope of the project. The next stage of the research will involve focus groups and one-to-one interviews with in-house solicitors, to explore the issues in greater detail and to inform the content of the framework.’
Dr Jim Baxter, professional ethics consultancy team leader at the IDEA Centre, said: ‘In-house solicitors face a distinctive set of ethical challenges due to their unique position within organisations, and the need to wield influence while maintaining independence.
‘We’ve learned a lot already through the research and are looking forward to putting this knowledge into practice by developing a set of tools and resources that can support and empower the in-house community in meeting their ethical challenges. This is not just about helping individual solicitors, but also about contributing to a sense of collective solidarity – a self-identifying, vibrant community – in the profession as a whole.’
Phase two begins this month. In-house solicitors wishing to participate in the focus groups and one-to-ones should email Dr Jim Baxter at j.d.baxter@leeds.ac.uk
The resource will be unveiled next year.
