Parent Contextualised Scenario

Nick Johnson

Learning Outcomes

To help students examine the relationship between lawyer and client and explore the boundaries of the relationship;
To sensitise students to the potential conflict between client instructions, effects on third parties and personal integrity;
To enable students to consider the practical action a lawyer should take when faced with ethical or moral dilemmas.

Teaching Structure/Format

The scenario provides the opportunity for active analysis of ethical issues that have been introduced to a group of students at an abstract or conceptual level. The ideal size for the group would be 16. In a 60 minute seminar, the scenario would be preceded by a short discussion of the nature of the solicitor-client relation and a debate on a quotation:

"Yes, we can doubtless gain your case for you; we can set a whole neighbourhood at loggerheads; we can distress a widowed mother and her six fatherless children and thereby get you six hundred dollars to which you seem to have a legal claim, but which rightfully belongs, it appears to me, as much to the woman and her children as it does to you. You must remember that some things legally right are not morally right. We shall not take your case, but will give you a little advice for which we will charge you nothing. You seem to be a sprightly, energetic man; we would advise you to try your hand at making six hundred dollars in some other way".

[Abraham Lincoln, whilst in practice in Springfield,USA]

The scenario (or scenarios) should be discussed in groups of four. Their views would be presented to the whole group for discussion with the tutor acting as facilitator.

Students are being asked to adopt the role of a practising solicitor during the discussion of the scenario. Thus they are asked to prepare for the seminar by reading selected extracts from The Guide to the Professional Conduct of Solicitors (www.guide-on-line.lawsociety.org.uk).

The Scenario:

Your client is a father who is divorced from the mother of his two children. He has been away in Singapore for the last two years and now has returned to work in this country. He wants greater access to his children, including overnight stays, and instructs you to make an application to the court to this effect.

Whilst you are preparing the application, you contact your client's former employers in Singapore. They tell you that your client was under investigation for offences involving sex with children in both Singapore and Thailand and that is why he left his job in Singapore.

Moral Context/Underlying Ethical Issues:

Dilemma between duty of confidentiality to the client and acting in the best interests of the children. General duty of confidentiality Guide, Rule 16.01 Authority for overriding the confidence in 16.02. Special duty to protect children from abuse (why?) see paras. 4 & 5.

What are the solicitor's options?

Assessment of Learning Outcomes

It is not necessary to assess summatively each learning opportunity and an exercise such as this should be successful if all students have participated, shared their understanding and reflected upon the experience. Further feedback can be given or more focused reflection encouraged utilising a variety of methods that could be adopted for assessing the learning outcomes of the scenario, a few of which are described below.

1. Simple self assessment

For each learning outcome below (a. - c.) invite the students to reflect upon the extent which they agree that their understanding/achievement of the outcome has occurred on (e.g.) a five-point scale such as:

Outcome has been achieved:

Very well
Well
Somewhat
Not well
Not at all

Learning outcome:

Understanding of lawyer/ client relationship
Potential for conflict between client instructions, effects on third parties and personal integrity understood
Practical action to be taken when faced with ethical or moral dilemmas identified

If any students records a 'not well' or 'not at all', ask them to reflect why this was so?

2. Simple peer and self assessment

Ask students to evaluate their own and the rest of their group's performance according to the following (on a scale of 1 -5; 1 = outstanding, 5 = has much more to offer):

Active participation/contribution
Ideas and imagination
Leadership/direction
Reflection/insight
Create other topics to suit your own objectives.

3. Tutor feedback

Provide brief comments verbally or in writing based upon defined criteria (such as those above)

4. Reflective comment

Ask students to record their observations, thoughts and key insights or dislikes from the exercise.

5. Traditional essay or analytical account

The exercises can also firm the basis for a more traditional propositional knowledge based enquiry. This would be achieved by asking the student to write a brief essay focusing on the subject in some contested form. For example,

"Lawyers should only comply with their professional Code. Their personal morality is more than irrelevant, it is a positive impediment to representing the client's interests fully and effectively." Discuss.

Relevant Professional Codes:

The Guide to the Professional Conduct of Solicitors (http://www.guide-on-line.lawsociety.org.uk) and the Code of Conduct of the Bar of England and Wales (http://www.barcouncil.org.uk). Guidelines on fair prosecuting are in the Code for Crown Prosecutors at http://www.cps.gov.uk/Home/CPSPublications/Scheme/code.htm

Supporting Philosophy, Theology,
Religious Studies, History of Science and Philosophy of Science

Please note that as of the 1st of August 2011 the Subject Centre for PRS entered a 5 month transition phase prior to its closure on the 31st of December 2011. Most pages on this website are no longer being updated, apart from resources from the last academic year's activities.

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