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Law firms: ethics v profit

16 February 2024 / Dana Denis-Smith
Issue: 8059 / Categories: Features , Career focus , Profession
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Junior lawyers are the partners of the future. Firms need to listen to their ethical concerns, argues Dana Denis-Smith

Profits per equity partner has for a long time been the definitive measure of law firm success, but that is changing, with a growing realisation that there are other ways to measure success. Law firms and their clients are increasingly focused on ESG (environmental, social and governance) issues, and junior lawyers in particular are putting pressure on the profession to shift to a business model that prioritises sustainability over profitability.

My organisation Obelisk Support’s latest report, ‘World in motion: why the legal profession cannot stand still’, found that nearly three-quarters of junior lawyers agreed that they would not join an organisation whose values did not match with their own, even if they were offering more money. An even higher proportion said they were looking to effect positive change in society through their work as lawyers.

Nearly two-thirds of junior lawyers wanted the right to refuse to work on certain matters

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Hugh James—Phil Edwards

Hugh James—Phil Edwards

Serious injury teambolstered by high-profile partner hire

Freeths—Melanie Stancliffe

Freeths—Melanie Stancliffe

Firm strengthens employment team with partner hire

DAC Beachcroft—Tim Barr

DAC Beachcroft—Tim Barr

Lawyers’ liability practice strengthened with partner appointment in London

NEWS
Tech companies will be legally required to prevent material that encourages or assists serious self-harm appearing on their platforms, under Online Safety Act 2023 regulations due to come into force in the autumn
Commercial leasehold, the defence of insanity and ‘consent’ in the criminal law are among the next tranche of projects for the Law Commission
The Bar has a culture of ‘impunity’ and ‘collusive bystanding’ in which making a complaint is deemed career-ending due to a ‘cohort of untouchables’ at the top, Baroness Harriet Harman KC has found
Lawyers have broadly welcomed plans to electronically tag up to 22,000 more offenders, scrap most prison terms below a year and make prisoners ‘earn’ early release
David Lammy, Ellie Reeves and Baroness Levitt have taken up office at the Ministry of Justice, following the cabinet reshuffle
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