LAW456
Professionalism and Ethics
(Al-Khatib)
Prerequisite courses:
Prerequisite for:
Instructor(s): Zachary Al-Khatib
Course credit: 3
Method of presentation: Lecture/seminar
Teamwork: No
Learning Management System:
METHOD OF EVALUATION
Students will be graded on the basis of a paper (75% of final grade) and class participation ( 25%).
Given the topics and content of this course, the class will be presented in a lecture format.
Students will be expected to read materials and prepare to brief cases and discuss the issues in class.
COURSE DESCRIPTION
The course will focus on the lawyer’s professional responsibilities and legal ethics in Alberta, geared towards an understanding of “life in the trenches”.
The class will cover the concept of the practice of law as a profession and the structure and regulation of the legal profession in Alberta under the Legal Profession Act and the rules of the Law Society of Alberta, including the mechanisms and essential procedures involved in professional discipline. We will discuss the concept of legal competence. The class will examine the relationship between the lawyer and the profession, society, the justice system and other lawyers. We will discuss the concept of the practice of law as a business.
The class will also explore and discuss legal ethics in theory and in practice, with an emphasis on the Code of Conduct and recent Canadian case law. This will involve examination of the lawyer-client relationship and the lawyer’s relationships with society, the justice system, and other lawyers in the context of an adversarial justice system. This will include examination of the concepts of loyalty, the lawyer as advocate, conflicts of interest, confidentiality, competence and, most importantly, the interaction and conflict among these different concepts in the context of an active practice. We will also examine the lawyer as advisor and negotiator and the lawyer in an institutional setting.
SPECIAL COMMENTS
Description updated 2026-27. Please contact the instructor for any specific questions you may have related to this particular course section.
REQUIRED TEXTS (IF ANY)
Law Society of Alberta, Code of Conduct
Legal Profession Act, RSA 2000, c. L-8
Recommended/Optional:
Alice Woolley, et al, Lawyers Ethics and Professional Regulation, 4th ed. (Toronto: LexisNexis, 2021)
Gavin MacKenzie, Lawyers & Ethics: Professional Responsibility and Discipline (Westlaw, 2024)
M. Proulx and D. Layton, Ethics and Canadian Criminal Law, 2nd ed. (2001, Irwin Law)
Canadian Bar Association, Assessing Ethical Infrastructure in Your Law Firm: A Practical Guide, (2014)