Priestley 11 · Usually final year
Ethics and Professional Responsibility for Australian law students
Ethics is usually the last Priestley subject you take and the one most directly connected to what happens after you finish. It covers the duties you will owe, the conduct rules that apply in your jurisdiction, and the disclosure obligations that follow you to the admissions board.
What the subject covers
- Admission to practice, and fitness to practise
- The paramount duty to the court and the administration of justice
- Duties to the client, including competence and communication
- Confidentiality, and its relationship with client legal privilege
- Conflicts of interest, current and former client
- Costs disclosure and billing obligations
- Professional discipline, and the consequences of a finding of misconduct
Topic coverage varies between law schools and between jurisdictions. Your subject guide is the one that counts.
Cases you will meet in an Australian Ethics and Professional Responsibility course
Three decisions that turn up in Ethics and Professional Responsibility across Australian law schools. Some of them are English decisions that Australian courses still teach as core authority, so this is a list of what you will be taught rather than a list of Australian judgments. Treat it as a starting point rather than a reading list. Your course sets its own, and it is the one that counts.
Ziems v Prothonotary of the Supreme Court of New South Wales
(1957) 97 CLR 279
Fitness to practise, and what conduct outside practice can mean for it.
Giannarelli v Wraith
(1988) 165 CLR 543
The advocate and the duty to the court.
D'Orta-Ekenaike v Victoria Legal Aid
(2005) 223 CLR 1
Advocates immunity, and the finality principle behind it.
How the subject is assessed
Ethics is assessed with scenario questions about what a practitioner should do, alongside reflective or essay tasks. Some schools assess it inside a clinical or practical unit rather than as a stand-alone exam.
Using CaseSharp for Ethics
Problem questions
Identify the duty, find the conduct rule in your jurisdiction, then check the authority on how it has been applied. Open the linked source and verify the passage before citing it.
Case notes
Disciplinary decisions are short and fact-specific. A brief keeps the standard applied separate from the outcome on the facts.
AGLC4 essays
Conduct rules, legislation and disciplinary decisions cited together. CaseSharp's citation check (beta) suggests a draft footnote for each case citation it finds. Treat it as a draft you check against AGLC4 and the original source.
Exam scaffolds
Scaffold by duty, with the rule reference and the leading authority together, then check the citing cases for the authorities before the assessment.
CaseSharp is a research and study tool. It does not write your problem question answer or your research essay. When a citation in your draft is not in CaseSharp's records, the citation check (beta) marks it for your review instead of guessing.
Try it on an Ethics question
Create a free account and run an Ethics query like the one below, so you can see what comes back before you decide anything.
advocates immunity D'Orta-Ekenaike
Australian decisions in CaseSharp’s collection. Coverage varies by court and date.