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Ethics of The Paralegal Profession

Attorneys are obligated, by the ethical standards of their own profession, to conduct themselves in an honorable, ethical manner. As a member of the practice, paralegals are also obligated to conduct themselves in an honorable and ethical manner. But it should not be presumed that you are automatically aware of the ethics code paralegals are expected to follow. This is why paralegals receive ethics training. The training paralegals receive on ethics provides a clear understanding of what paralegals are allowed to do and what they are not ethically allowed to do.

As a paralegal, you will be privy to a tremendous amount of highly confidential information that you are required to protect. You must not only understand your ethical responsibilities to clients, but learn how to avoid accidentally divulging their information. Clients need to be able to trust attorneys, and the paralegals who perform some of their work. In addition to a list of ethical obligations related to what you must disclose and what you may not, you must understand and honor your attorneys' other ethical obligations, such as ensuring that there are no conflicts of interest before accepting a new case or client. Doing high-quality work and using good judgment are also part of a paralegal's ethical obligation. For this reason and others, you will become a valuable professional asset to any employer who sees that you can be counted on to have unwavering ethics.

This resource provides instruction for users to:

  • Compare ethical regulation of attorneys with regulation of paralegals
  • Describe efforts to regulate the paralegal profession
  • Identify guidelines for avoiding unauthorized practice of law by paralegals
  • Recognize unethical recording of accounting and client payments
  • Determine the appropriate ethical response to various legal scenarios
  • Discuss how to protect client confidentiality and avoid conflicts of interest
Regulation of the Legal Profession
Paralegals and legal assistants assist and support lawyers by maintaining and organizing documents and files, conducting legal research, and drafting documents for the attorney’s review. They must understand how to perform the various tasks including how to maintain confidentiality for clients and adhere to ethical standards. They must also fully understand the U.S. court systems, the criminal process and civil litigation, the civil legal process, and administrative law depending upon the type of law cases involved. Specifically, this badge demonstrates the earner's ability to explain how lawyers and paralegals are regulated.