legal ethics handbook - Nova Scotia Barristers' Society

LEGAL ETHICS HANDBOOK
is professionally representing a client or is concerned personally;
(j) failure to honour the lawyer's word when pledged even though, under technical rules, the absence of
writing might afford a legal defence.
See also SK Ch.I: Com. 3.
Other examples are specifically dealt with in subsequent Chapters. For illustrative cases in the same area see 44
Halsbury's Laws (4th) at 223-25 and M.M. Orkin, Legal Ethics: A Study of Professional Conduct (Toronto:
Cartwright & Sons Ltd., 1957) at 204-214.
Based on case law, Smith, supra, note 1, at 245-246, has summarized the types of offences by lawyers whose
private activities have lead to disciplinary action by law societies and courts as follows:
Conduct in a lawyer's private life which brings the lawyer's integrity into question also brings disrepute upon the
profession. (Re Cwinn and Law Society of Upper Canada (1980), 28 O.R. (2d) 61, 108 D.L.R. (3d) 381; leave to
appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada refused 28 O.R. (2d) 61n).
When a lawyer commits fraud and forgery in order to support an extravagant lifestyle, that lawyer breaches the
special duty owed to the Bar and to the Court as one of its sworn officers. (R. v. Morrison (1975), 13 N.S.R. (2d)
98 (C.A.)).
When a lawyer uses a client's confidential disclosures to engage in dishonourable conduct in private life, the
necessary lawyer-client trust may be destroyed. Such conduct will be actionable if the client also suffers injury
from these private activities. (Szarfer v. Chodos (1986), 27 D.L.R. (4th) 388 (Ont. H.C.); appeal dismissed 66 O.R.
(2d) 350 (C.A.)).
5. "The public looks for a hallmark bestowed by a trusted professional body, and evidenced by entry on a register
or members' list.'' Bennion, supra, note 3, at 36. "Membership of a ... professional body is generally treated as an
indication of good character in itself ...'' Id., at 111.
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