Ethics and practicing law go hand in hand. Read on to learn more about the ethical principles of the legal landscape, how it can reshape the law and the ethical challenges lawyers face in today’s world.
By Grant Longstaff. Published 19 Feburary 2026.
Professional ethics in law
Ethical behaviour is a foundation of practicing law. It also isn’t optional. Ethical standards are a key part of the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Principles. According to the principles, solicitors must act:
- in a way that upholds the constitutional principle of the rule of law, and the proper administration of justice.
- in a way that upholds public trust and confidence in the solicitors' profession and in legal services provided by authorised persons.
- with independence.
- with honesty.
- with integrity.
- in a way that encourages equality, diversity and inclusion.
- in the best interests of each client.
They go on to explain “failure by solicitors to act ethically can significantly erode public trust and confidence, undermining the rule of law and the administration of justice.” Society needs to trust and believe in the legal system for it to function correctly and effectively and lawyers must act ethically for this to happen.
Kelly Rowney, Senior Lecturer and Programme & Student Lead, codesigned the Legal Ethics module for our academic master’s in law (AMIL) program. She further explains: “From a theoretical perspective, ethics matter within the law because it’s ultimately ethical considerations which underpin the operation of legal actors, such as lawyers, jury members and the judiciary.”
Challenges to ethical legal practice
Legal professionals are faced with ethical questions throughout their career. Some of these dilemmas are driven by external factors such as changes in legislation, global events, social movements, climate change and artificial intelligence. Others can be driven by business demands, client interests and profits which could promote unnecessary legal aggression and irresponsible decision making.
Ethical considerations in law
Beyond the external factors guiding ethical challenges are the personal ethics of lawyers themselves. Kelly Rowney explains: “Subjectivity, ethical considerations and personal views are included when legal decisions are made, whether or not you believe they should be. Therefore, an understanding of different types of ethical viewpoints is central to gaining a deeper understanding of how the legal system (especially the court system) operates.
We have seen, over time, landmark case law being determined with such ethical considerations in mind (such as Re A (conjoined twins) [2001] 2 WLR 480). In Re A, “irreconcilable conflicts of moral and ethical values” were involved making the case decision one that was “very difficult to answer”. Ethical considerations remain at the forefront of case discussions. For example, in Getty Images (US) Inc v Stability AI Ltd [2025] 11 WLUK 27 where the “ethical considerations” surrounding the use of deep learning AI models was involved in the proceedings.
Ultimately, it is impossible to entirely separate ethical views and theory from the law, therefore I think they need to be continued to be embraced as wholly relevant to legal decision making instead.”
Kelly suggests a good starting point for those keen to explore the topic in greater detail read Jonathan Herring’s Legal Ethics. The book outlines a number of ethical points of view such as virtue ethics, rule-based ethics and character-based ethics.
Challenges to legal ethics
Legal professionals will always be confronted with ethical questions as part of their work, and as the world around us changes the challenges faced by lawyers evolve along with it. Below, Jordan Frazer, a Lecturer of Academic Law at our Leeds campus, discusses the importance of ethics and the law itself.
“The good teachers tell us to question everything. To provoke, to challenge. To question is a natural impulse: an extension of our human quest for knowledge. If we don’t, nothing will change – or, rather, nothing will change for the better.
The law does not exist in a vacuum. As academics, we encourage our students to see the “big picture”: to contextualise the legal concepts, principles and interpretations we discuss in the hope that this contextualisation will bring a degree of relatability between the law and our everyday lives. This can be difficult. It’s much easier for us to appreciate the concepts of murder and modern slavery than the nuances of international shipping standards or fraudulent trading. To see that big picture, in any area of the law, demands an engagement with one question. What is law’s purpose?
In 2026, this seems too basic a question to ask. How can we be at a stage of human evolution in which we legitimately consider colonising Mars, yet cannot ascertain the fundamental purpose of the system of rules which govern us here on Earth?
We find ourselves at a peculiar time in our shared history – a statement that becomes truer with every passing news headline. Attention spans are on the decline and ‘deep fakes’ are on the up. Cancel culture and counter-cancel culture. Online echo chambers. The fragmentation of community. The generational divide. A burgeoning mental illness epidemic exacerbated by a cost-of-living crisis and post-pandemic social isolation. Daily developments which, had they been a decade ago and written into the screenplay of a Hollywood blockbuster, would’ve been laughed out of the cinema for their implausibility. Yet here we are: untrusting of reality and simultaneously prepared to sacrifice our capacity for independent thought to the convenience of artificial intelligence, at the expense of what is good for the soul: creativity, conversation, cooperation.
These are the symptoms of a society in which the importance of ethics has never been more pronounced. Ethics is everything. Without ethics, a system of laws would be futile. Should the law protect or punish us? Compensate or reward? Encourage or discourage? Promote peace, prosperity and meaningfulness of experience? Incentivise ingenuity, hard work and charitable values? Should it enable physical, technical and spiritual exploration?
The answer is that the law should do all of those things. It is – we are – all connected. As easy as it may be to fall into the clutches of apathy, we must continue to question, challenge and provoke. Should our ethical compass become rusted and its mechanism to determine the direction of fairness fail, the role of the legal academic may be a crucial line in the defence of democracy’s endurance.”
If you want to uncover the moral principles at the heart of the legal world our LLM in Legal Ethics is a great way to discover more.
