Legal and Professional Ethics

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Description
It has been sold that "the supreme characteristic of a great lawyer is not so much an expansion of the brain as an enlargement or the heart, a wide and generous sympathy, a nervous system carefully attuned to all the passions and prejudices in life." He must be a man that not only knows human nature, but has an appreciable quantity of human nature in him; a man, in whom, when his client seeks advice, he finds not merely a cold-blooded jurist, a profound oracle of the law, but a man strong in his sympathies and full of resources for evading or escaping difficulty— resources that come not altogether from law books, but from the book of experience, which he has so diligently studied, both in his own life and in the lives of others. The true lawyer, when he stands before a court or jury, stands not in his own shoes holding out his client at arm's length, but is an advocate in every sense of the term, standing in the place of his client taking upon himself the burden of his case, and enwrapping himself so intensely in the feelings of his client that words burn on his lips as he denounces the deceiver, and tears start to his eyes as he relates the sorrows and griefs of his client under the heel of the oppressor; a man indeed, who struggles in defence of the life, fortune and honour of his client as if it were his own. Such is the truly great lawyer, as distinguished from a mere jurist.
The preparation in the college equips the brain with legal principles but it affords the young student little or no guidance for the actual conduct of cases in courts of law. The young man just called to the bar finds important interests of his clients entrusted to him and often feels it difficult to find his way to justify the confidence that has been reposed in him. "I never felt so much in want of a leader as I did when I had to cross-examine that doctor" was the remark of a talented junior of considerable standing at the bar.
It is not always given to every one to have a proper leader to guide him in all the exigencies of his professional career. But it is open to every one to study the methods of the great masters in the art of Advocacy. The present work, which was originally published in seven volumes and is now published in three, is an all-comprehensive treatise on the 'Art of Advocacy'. The third volume now issued is entitled "Legal & Professional Ethics—Legal Ethics, Duties & Privileges of a Lawyer". Chapter on "Glimpses of Professional Misconduct" in the present edition would, no doubt, be a caution especially to junior members at the Bar from many a pitfall in the course of their professional career It would be simply repetition of the truth to say that the learned author had taken immense trouble and patience in compiling the matter from different sources thus making the book a unique and of superb utility for both the Bench and the Bar.
It has been the aim of the authors to collect in this short volume the' experiences of some of the great and successful advocates in the East and the West. They have refrained as far as possible, from laying down rules and principles at any great length. Whatever any such principles have to be enunciated, they have been done so by citing them in the choice words of the best and acknowledged writers on the subject. But they have preferred imparting instruction by illustrations rather than by exposition.
The present literature is a great service to the members of the profession to bring together and exhibit "the principles and methods adopted by the acknowledged masters of the art of advocacy with illustrations from well-known cases.
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Contents
Chapter I - Introductory
Chapter II - Profession of law
Chapter III - Necessity for a code of legal ethics
Chapter IV - A code of legal ethics
Chapter V - Bar council of India rules
Chapter VI - Professional conduct and advocacy
Chapter VII - Sanction for an ethical code
Chapter VIII - Lawyers' devotion to duty
Chapter IX - Character and courage of conviction
Chapter X - Discharge of duty under difficult circumstances
Chapter XI - Law and morality
Chapter XII - Following the dictates of conscence (in the practice of law)
Chapter XIII - Search for truth as the ideal of the lawyer
Chapter XIV - Lawyers and legislation
Chapter XV- Loyalty to law and limitations of rule
Chapter XVI - Duty of counsel in taking instructions from the clients
Chapter XVII - Duty of counsel in advising on litigation
Chapter XVIII - Duty of counsel in promoting compromise
Chapter XIX - Duty of counsel in accepting engagements
Chapter XX - Duty of counsel when engaged for the prosecution or in defence of the accused
Chapter XXI - Duty of the advocate in defence of the guilty (can the lawyer defend a person known to be guilty?)
Chapter XXII - Duty of counsel in acting for a poor client
Chapter XXIII - Duty of counsel in matters of legal technicalities (Litigation about Trifles)
Chapter XXIV- Duty of counsel to client
Chapter XXV - Duty of counsel to the opponent
Chapter XXVI - Duty of advocate to opposing counsel
Chapter XXVII - Duty of counsel to his colleagues
Chapter XXVIII - Duty of counsel to himself
Chapter XXIX - Duty to court
Chapter XXX – The junior bar
Chapter XXXI - Counsel giving his own opinion about the merits of the case
Chapter XXXII - Duty of advocate to the state and the public
Chapter XXXIII - Duties of judges
Chapter XXXIV - Duty of counsel to avoid law's delay
Chapter XXXV – Legal fees
Chapter XXXVI - Contempt of court
Chapter XXXV - Cases of professional misconduct
Chapter XXXVIII - The unprotected lawyer
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Author Details
P. Ramanatha Aiyar, B.A., B.L.
N.S. Ranganatha Aiyer, B.A., B.L., High Court Vakil
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