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2016/17 Undergraduate Module Catalogue

LAW2221 Lawyers, Ethics and Society

20 creditsClass Size: 60

Module manager: Andrew Francis
Email: M.Travis@leeds.ac.uk

Taught: Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun) View Timetable

Year running 2016/17

This module is approved as a discovery module

Module summary

This research-led module analyses the changing nature of legal services, professionalism and professional ethics. The legal profession in England and Wales currently faces unprecedented changes, ranging from the increasing pressure on firms to ensure diversity in their recruitment practices, the regulatory and competitive challenges generated by the Legal Services Act, and globalisation. Other major shifts include the move to an increasingly commercialised model of practice and significant reductions in the public funding of legal services through legal aid. As a result the contemporary profession is now deeply divided and fragmented, characterised by multiple sites, forms of service delivery and types of practitioners. Another result of the changes has been to erode the credibility of the profession's traditional claim to be characterised by a distinctive ethicality and commitment to public service. Consequently, the question of legal ethics is an increasing concern. Other, related changes concern the image of the profession which has, in part, become far more democratic in recent years. However, within this picture of change, there are also significant continuities which the module will highlight. For instance, despite the diversification of the profession, its upper reaches remain dominated by a white male elite. Another continuity is the persistence of public distrust of lawyers which, if anything, has increased in recent years. The module will engage with these themes, grounding them in the theories with which it will begin. In this way, the students' critical skills will be enhanced, and utilised to analyse the nature of the contemporary profession, its role, the forms of regulation which seek to control it and its image.

Objectives

This module aims to introduce students to the sociological theories of the professions in order to equip them with a theoretical framework to examine both the historical and contemporary challenges faced by the legal profession. Drawing on different perspectives and methodologies (empirical data, cultural analysis etc.) the practice of law will be located within its social and political context in order to encourage students' analysis of the complex claims and structures of the legal profession and to enhance their understandings of contemporary legal practice. Through its discussions of both the exclusionary practices of the profession and contemporary challenges and changes to legal services the module will also support work on employability.

Learning outcomes
-Know and critically understand the main theories of the professions,
-Understand and apply a range of inter-disciplinary theoretical approaches, (sociological, historical etc) , to specific case studies within the legal profession, reflecting critically upon lawyers' claims
-Analyse contemporary changes to professional organisation and culture in legal practice and critically evaluate the challenges these represent to existing theories.
-Construct a coherent argument (written) drawing on theoretical material and contemporary examples
-Demonstrate critical awareness of the implications of the current organisation and culture of the legal profession for its capacity to exercise its traditional functions.
-Demonstrate ability to compare, analyse and synthesise the principal rules and theories relating to popular culture.
-Demonstrate detailed/comprehensive knowledge and understanding of a range of legal concepts, values, principles, institutions and procedures, and the ability to explain the relationships among them, as well as their limits.

Syllabus

-The sociology of the professions
-Professionalism (e.g. public interest and other obligations)
-Professional ethics (legitimacy/trust/partisanship/justice/service)
-Self-Regulation and the regulators of the legal profession
-The corporatisation and globalization of the legal profession
-Alternative Business Structures
-Access to justice/legal aid/cause lawyering
-Access and diversity in the legal profession
-The responses of regulators to these issues
-Lawyers in popular culture

Teaching methods

Delivery type	Number	Length hours	Student hours
Lecture	20	1.00	20.00
Seminar	8	1.50	12.00
Private study hours			168.00
Total Contact hours			32.00
Total hours (100hr per 10 credits)			200.00

Private study

Private Study will involve reading key texts in preparation for Seminar Discussion. Other tasks for Seminar Preparation are likely to include focussed research tasks (e.g. identifying and analysing firm websites; entries in recruitment literature, analysis of professional bodies’ position papers, watching films etc).

Student will also be asked to undertake one piece of un-assessed group work towards the end of the first semester, which will take the form of a ‘response’ to a Consultation on a matter affecting the profession. This will take the form of an oral presentation supported by an executive summary of the main points.

Methods of assessment

Coursework

Assessment type	Notes	% of formal assessment
Essay	3,500 words	100.00
Total percentage (Assessment Coursework)		100.00

Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated

Reading list

The reading list is available from the Library website

Last updated: 27/07/2016

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