Michael Dolan, Director of Ethics4Lawyers, and Donna Cooper, Consultant at Ethics4Lawyers, are legal ethics experts. They offer one-on-one ethics advice and counselling, CPD compliant ethics training and updates to help navigate the complex professional ethical requirements common to legal practice. Both will be presenting at the College of Law Victoria’s first Legal Practice Management Course. Insights spoke to Michael and Donna about what lawyers can expect from their ethics training, ethical issues often overlooked by lawyers and how lawyers can benefit from the course.
“The College of Law has an excellent reputation within the Australian legal profession for teaching key aspects of legal practice,” said Michael. “It is an honour to be invited to present in the College’s Legal Practice Management Course.”
In addition to serving as a senior ethics solicitor at the Law Institute of Victoria, Michael brings 45 years of legal experience, including 20 years as a senior executive in the electricity and mobile telephone industries in Australia and the UK. Prior to joining Ethics4Lawyers, Donna was the Manager of the Ethics & Professional Practice Department at the Law Institute of Victoria and was also the Secretary of the LIV Ethics Committee and the Ethics Liaison Group.
“We bring to the role many years of practical legal experience with a particular focus on ethics and legal practice management by law firm principals,” said Donna.
The latest legal ethics updates
Lawyers can expect the presentation to provide updates and sophisticated answers to challenging ethical problems.
“Lawyers will have an increased knowledge and understanding of their ethical and professional responsibilities as principals of law firms. The presentation will give lawyers the tools to respond to their ethical challenges,” said Michael.
Their session offers a timely opportunity to take a more strategic view of common ethical problems.
“In a busy law firm working under pressure, and often tight deadlines, sometimes it can be easy for lawyers to overlook some ethical issues,” said Donna. “Our training will alert course attendees to some common ethical issues which they may well encounter in practice on a regular basis. We will do this by exposing them to typical real-life situations encountered by law firm principals in legal practice and show them ways to address those issues successfully.”
Ethics is the foundation of law
Given the prominence of ethics in the daily life of lawyers, it is imperative to constantly improve one’s understanding of legal ethics.
“Ethics is the foundation stone upon which the practice of the law rests,” said Michael. “As the Chief justice of the High Court of Australia has written, only an ethical lawyer is essential to the administration of justice in our society. An ethical lawyer will be a happy lawyer and her or his legal practice will grow.”
“As lawyers, it was always satisfying to help clients solve their legal problems,” said Michael. “Now, as part of Ethics4Lawyers, it’s good to help colleagues address the ethics issues which they encounter in daily practice.”
Learn more about the Legal Practice Management Course in Victoria.
