Lawyers reminded of their ethical responsibilities

“Ethical responsibility in the legal profession covers not only the acts lawyers are prohibited from engaging in, but also positive acts, which we must engage in if we are to better contribute to the very communities to which we belong.”

Thus stressed Supreme Court Associate Justice Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa to members of the legal community who took part in the fourth leg of the Ethics Caravan for the Proposed Code of Professional Responsibility and Accountability (Ethics Caravan) held in Baguio City recently.

The Ethics Caravan is a five-leg series of consultations seeking to incorporate in the Code of Professional Responsibility and Accountability (CPRA) the underlying ethical considerations of a technology-driven judiciary and legal profession in line with the Supreme Court’s Strategic Plan for Judicial Innovations 2022-2027.

The caravan is part of the Supreme Court’s efforts to update the 34-year-old CPRA and craft a modern, relevant and responsive guide for legal professionals.

“The rules on ethics challenge us not only to profess the technical canons but also to probe the deeper questions of a lawyer’s moral conduct and examine the possible ways in which each of us may be perpetuating injustice,” said Caguioa, chair of the Supreme Court committee on legal education and bar matters.

Caguioa emphasized the significance of ethical responsibility in the legal profession and how the same must be unqualifiedly reflected in the proposed CPRA.

He said that when the legal community speaks of ethical responsibility, it speaks of the very bedrock of the legal profession, or “the way of life that challenges us to orient it with our understanding of the law.”

He added that the uprightness and sense of justice that lawyers practice and argue for as well as plead and teach about are best reflected in the ways with which lawyers are able to hold themselves to account.

“Ethical responsibility is certainly central and critical to the legal profession’s collective reputation and, consequently, the level of confidence it inspires in the public,” added Caguioa. INQ