A gut-check kind of thing
The basic canons of the NALA and NFPA codes detail some of the ethical "tenets that paralegals are urged to follow.
That includes avoiding unauthorized practice, maintaining confidentiality, ensuring their supervising attorney reviews their work and checking for conflicts of interest.
But ethics questions are rarely black- and-white, noted Kaufman.
“I try to tell my students that ethics is a gray area. What you may not think is unethical, I may think is. A lot of times for me, it’s been a gut-check kind of thing. If I’m not comfortable, there’s probably a good reason for it.”
Practice Tips
Here are some suggestions on how to avoid ethics viola- tions.
• Ask: When in doubt, ask your supervising attorney. If you are uncomfortable doing so, ask another attorney or call your state bar for an ethics opinion.
• Keep quiet: Don’t discuss cases in public venues, or even at home. You never know when a conflict of inter- est or confidentiality breach can pop up.
• Make sure checks and balances are in place: If you handle your attorney’s trust account, don’t handle any of the firm’s other accounts to avoid accidentally mix- ing funds.
Suggested Reading
Diana Smith Diana Smith received her bachelor's degree from Loyola University in New Orleans, where she received the Kappa Tau Alpha Top Scholar Award for the highest GPA in the school's print journalism program.
She worked as a community news and crime reporter for the Greensboro News and Record before joining Law- yers Weekly. Diana can be reached at
diana.smith@
sc.lawyersweekly.com.
Reprinted with permission from South Caro- lina Lawyers Weekly.
Ethics and Professional Responsibility for Paralegals - Paperback (June 10, 2008) by Therese A. Cannon
Concise Guide To Paralegal Ethics, Third Edition Paperback (July 27, 2009) by Therese A. Cannon
Webinars
Practical Legal Ethics Confidentiality Unauthorized Practice of Law Conflict of Interest Zealousness, Advertising and Ethical Issues Presented by
KNOW Paralegal -
www.knowparalegal.com 57
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