During his Lord Slynn Memorial Lecture in London last week, Lord Neuberger took the opportunity to spotlight the growing list of ethical dilemmas currently facing the profession and to call for greater ethical competency among lawyers. ‘[The] earlier and more effectively we train and encourage potential professional lawyers and advocates to appreciate and understand the importance and nature of their duties, the stronger a legal profession we will have, and the stronger the rule of law will be,’ he said, calling on University law programs and professional legal training programs to aim for holistic integration of ethical awareness at all stages of lawyer training.
Emerging ethical concerns
In particular, Lord Neuberger highlighted the growth of alternative business structures in the legal sector and the rise of artificial intelligence in legal services as two of the weightiest ethical challenges currently facing the profession. Citing Professors Richard and Daniel Susskind’s book The Future of the Professions, Lord Neuberger invited his audience to ponder the possibility of intelligent software performing professional legal work which ‘appears to involve the very human qualities of expertise, creativity and interpersonal skill’. The rise of AI is an ethical concern, not just an employment concern, he argued: ‘The legal profession should [be] preparing for the problems and opportunities which would arise from such an enormous potential area of development, and one of the most difficult challenges will be to consider the ethical risks and challenges,’ he said.
Sources: Legal Futures; Legal Cheek
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