Pressure to bend rules
Pressure from clients to act unethically is the single biggest ethical challenge facing barristers, a new survey has found.
The Bar Council’s Ethics at the Bar report, published this week, found that more than half of barristers (51%) said pressure from clients to act unethically had caused them problems “to some extent” or “a great extent”, putting it comfortably ahead of every other issue tested.
The next biggest headache was maintaining independence (31%), followed by pressure from “others” to bend the rules (20%) and the duty to report serious misconduct (16%).
The figure was higher still when focused on just the self-employed bar, where 53% pointed to client pressure as a challenge. As one respondent put it, “most professional ethics issues in my practice arise out of client instructions.”
For the employed bar, top concerns were maintaining independence (38%), internal pressure from within their own organisation (33%) and isolation from wider barrister networks (27%).
The findings draw on responses from 27% of the practising bar.
Barristers reckon they know their ethical obligations well, rating their understanding of the code of conduct at 8.45 out of 10 on average, with more than four in five scoring themselves 8 or higher. When ethical questions do crop up, most turn first to colleagues (nearly 80% said they were “very likely” to) rather than the regulator’s handbook or helpline.
Despite the headlines they generate, SLAPPs and the misuse of NDAs barely registered as day-to-day concerns, troubling only a tiny minority.
The BSB Handbook was criticised by 15% of those who left comments as complicated and hard to navigate, with the shift to “outcomes-focused” regulation branded “vague”. The ethics helpline drew mixed reviews, with one barrister grumbling that it “does not sufficiently analyse the problem with you. It just repeats the rules.”
In response, the Bar Council says it will focus its free webinars on independence and client pressure, explore on-demand online training, publish fresh guidance for both the employed and self-employed bar, and revisit the research in two to four years.