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Trust in law societies has dropped 5%
Perceptions of ethical behaviour by legal member associations across the country have gotten worse since last year, according to new data from the Governance Institute of Australia.
Jerome Doraisamy
In its Ethics Index 2018, the Governance Institute outlined that while 54 per cent of people see law societies in Australian states and territories as ethical, 17 per cent perceive them as unethical.
According to the Ethics Index, the net ethical score of Australian law societies ranks below organisations such as the Australian Medical Association, National Farmers Federation and CPA Australia, while besting the likes of the Business Council of Australia, Financial Planning Association and Real Estate Institute.
Responding to the findings, Deloitte partner Dr Deen Sanders pondered whether respondents presume that law societies are not as public-facing as other organisations on sociopolitical issues, instead leaving cultural stances to individual lawyers and barristers.
“[Organisations such as CPA and law societies] are perhaps seen more as responding to rules, and the jobs of professional in that space is to respond to the clearly established rules [with a] very clear evidentiary question,” Dr Sanders said.
“I think law societies are in charge of something much more volatile, the idea of how do you negotiate complex issues of ethics and euthanasia, things that, frankly, the accounting bodies are unlikely to be tested with.”
“So I think there’s something unique about law that puts it in a position of contest in the public’s mind, but it’s also that opacity, the fact that it’s not so visible in the context of wider public conversation,” he surmised.
Law societies could, he suggested, step forward more loudly and advocate more strongly.
“Rather than be seen as a bastion of protection for the profession of law, instead they could be a bastion of protection for society. That’s a much stronger public opportunity for them to take,” Dr Sanders said.
UTS Business School academic Rosemary Sainty agreed, saying: “I think there’s probably a community perception that lawyers shy away from the grey zone where ethics and law potentially overlap, and encourage their clients to do the same.”
These issues were discussed in more detail in a recent podcast episode, sponsored by Governance Institute, examining the findings of the Ethics Index 2018 study. You can listen to the podcast below.
Jerome Doraisamy
Jerome Doraisamy is the editor of Lawyers Weekly and HR Leader. He has worked at Momentum Media as a journalist on Lawyers Weekly since February 2018, and has served as editor since March 2022. In June 2024, he also assumed the editorship of HR Leader. Jerome is also the author of The Wellness Doctrines book series, an admitted solicitor in NSW, and a board director of the Minds Count Foundation.
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