Understanding Lawyers' Ethics in Canada, 3rd Edition

Conducting Yourself Ethically In Your Day-to-Day Practice
Understanding Lawyers' Ethics in Canada, 3rd Edition addresses the ethical issues lawyers face in their dealings with clients – complete with analysis, commentary and insight. Legal ethics experts Justice Alice Woolley and new co-author Professor Amy Salyzyn have written a thorough and scholarly review of the legal and ethical duties every lawyer must fulfill to manage risk and make prudent decisions in everyday practice.

Features of This Book
The third edition of Understanding Lawyers' Ethics in Canada discusses significant practice and case law developments since the previous edition was published in 2016. The text updates readers on the latest challenges and ethical dilemmas for lawyers, and includes:

• An excellent summation of lawyers' duties and responsibilities
• Examination of case law and disciplinary decisions with respect to lawyer misconduct
• Review of ethical issues arising in areas such as:
  • The lawyer-client relationship
  • Advocacy
  • Lawyer-client trust and confidence
  • Client perjury
  • Dealing with witnesses
  • Conflicts of interest
  • Criminal law
  • Access to justice
• The codified duties of lawyers in Canada, set out in the Federation of Law Societies’ Model Code, with identification of variations from the Federation Code in different Canadian provinces

What's New in This Edition

• The controversy over the adoption of the Statement of Principles requirement by the Law Society of Ontario
• Limits on abusive or discriminatory speech by lawyers and lawyer speech and social media
• Crown lawyer duties when acting in litigation involving Indigenous Peoples and lawyers’ duties when acting opposite self-represented litigants
• New law society rules and requirements with respect to contingency fee agreements
• Law Society of British Columbia v. Trinity Western University and the regulatory context for that decision
• New revisions and additions to the Model Code and code of conduct provisions, including with respect to competence and ex parte applications
• New disciplinary decisions and case law in all areas related to lawyer conduct, including decisions defining what constitutes “sharp practice” by lawyers
• Entity and compliance-based regulation of lawyers and regulatory initiatives in relation to fitness to practice
• Expanded assessment of the moral complexity of the lawyer’s role
• New cases, including:
  • R. v. White (the lawyer-client relationship)
  • R. v. Suter (the legal consequences of lawyer advice)
  • Bent v. Platnick (lawyer liability in defamation)
  • Salomon v. Matte‑Thompson (the scope of the lawyer’s advisory role)
  • Canada (Attorney General) v. Chambre des notaires du Québec (the scope of solicitor-client privilege)
  • Alberta (Information and Privacy Commissioner) v. University of Calgary (legislative exceptions to solicitor-client privilege)
  • R. v. R.V. (ethical cross-examination and prosecutorial discretion)
  • Ontario (Attorney General) v. Clark (prosecutorial liability and independence)

Who Should Read This Book

• All lawyers including In-house Counsel – understand your duties and obligations
• Judges – a reference for understanding lawyers’ duties and obligations
• Law societies – a well-researched reference source for bodies governing legal practice
• Law professors and instructors – an indispensable textbook for teaching lawyers' ethics and the law governing lawyers
• Law students and articling students – a useful supplement to course materials on lawyers' ethics and the law governing lawyers, and provides a head start on legal practice