Vulnerability to legal misconduct: a profile of problem lawyers in Victoria, Australia
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Vulnerability to legal misconduct ...
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Univ Arizona, James E Rogers Coll LawIssue Date
2020-04-27
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Sklar, T., Moore, J. S., Bismark, M., & Taouk, Y. (2020). Vulnerability to legal misconduct: a profile of problem lawyers in Victoria, Australia. International Journal of the Legal Profession, 1-21.Publisher
ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTDAbstract
Public trust in the legal profession rests on regulators taking timely and effective action in response to misconduct. Usually, case-by-case analysis occurs after a claim or complaint is lodged with little attention on factors that may predispose a lawyer to misconduct. Vulnerability is a useful concept for understanding individuals' susceptibility to harm and for identifying safeguards to protect against that harm. This empirical study adds to the largely normative research on vulnerability with an analysis of 67 "problem lawyers" who were the subject of multiple complaints and at least one disciplinary hearing, a paid financial misconduct claim, or striking from the roll in Victoria, Australia between 2005 and 2015. We analysed determinations about these lawyers and identified a concatenation of factors associated with legal misconduct. Personal vulnerabilities included older age, male sex, poor health, and patterns of behaviour such as low conscientiousness. Situational vulnerabilities included working as a sole principal or in a small practice, excessive workload, and pressures from relationship breakdowns, death or illness in the family, or financial difficulties. These findings shed light on vulnerabilities to legal misconduct, and have implications for lawyer education and well-being, protection of clients, and efforts to reduce lapses in professionalism.Type
ArticleLanguage
enISSN
0969-5958EISSN
1469-9257ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1080/09695958.2020.1751166
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Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).