Virtue Ethics Part 2

Post-Aristotelian Virtue
Ethics
Legal and Professional Ethics
Week 2 Part 2

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 • The development of virtue ethics
in early history
• Its influence on medieval and
early modern culture and society
Objectives • The resurgence of virtue ethics in
the 20th century
• The connections between virtue
ethics and professional practice
 • Aristotle was a polymath but many of his writings have been lost – only around one fifth of what he wrote has survived past the Classical
age.
• Aristotle's students kept and collected texts written by him and their own notes from their lessons. These collections were passed among

Aristotle reaches
Aristotle's pupils until the Roman General Sulla occupied Athens in 86BC, and he took off the contents of the library there back to Rome.
They were published in c.60BC by Tyrannio of Amisus, and later Andronicus of Rhodes.
• This conquest of Greece by the Romans split the Roman Empire into the Latin-speaking West and the Greek-speaking East.

the West • In the second century AD the Romans created the "Corpus Aristotelimcum", which attempted to bring all his teachings together but which
might include works by his successors, students of the Lyceum, and so on.
• The formal split of the Empire came in 395AD with Rome leading the West and Constantinople the East. The empire persisted there long
after the Western empire had been overrun by Northern barbarians and split down into different states.
• The Roman Empire adopted Christianity as its religion in the 3rd century AD

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Greek philosophy became
controversial and Rome
declined
• We mentioned the Stoics, Cynics, Skeptics, and Epicures. 
• These philosophies promoted values such as the special nature of the
physical or material (rather than spiritual) world, denied or questioned
the possibility that humans were immortal, and did not support the idea
of a kind and providing God. This was a problem for Christians.
• Aristotle (and Plato) had none of these perceived shortcomings and
so their teachings were adopted more easily by later Christian thinkers.
• After 500AD the Empire broke down and while Roman laws and culture
were sometimes adopted and adapted by "barbarian" tribes, the lines of
communication and dialogue which had existed in the Empire broke
down. Latin was no longer a common language, so translation was an
issue. Education shifted into isolated places such as monasteries. 
• The one consistent link with the past was Christianity, but many
Christians were focused on establishing one orthodox way of thinking
and the authority of the Church and Pope, so critical studies were not a
priority.

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 Optimism in the
•
East
Christians in the East were more interested in learning pagan texts and
incorporating them into their own teaching, but pagans teaching
philosophy faced violence from Christians – e.g. Hypatia of Alexandria (350-
415AD), who taught maths, Platonic philosophy and astronomy but was
eventually murdered by a mob with ostraka. 
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• In this climate, thinkers left for Mesopotamia and Persia and took refuge in the
growing Islamic Empire, where they were free to express their thoughts. Greek
was a common language in many parts of that empire so copies of philosophical
texts were more widely understood and translated into local languages such as
Syriac. Elements of Greek philosophy were taught in centres of learning such
as the House of Wisdom in Baghdad and the Academy of Jundishapur (south
west Iran), where Christians and Muslims studied together. 

• Arabic readers, who had a very rich literary tradition drawing on many different
cultures, led the demand for translations of Greek writings. Translation started
being done by non-Christians under the Abbasid Empire (810AD – c.1000), which
further helped preserve the Greek writings.

• Philosophers such as Yaqub Ibn Ishaq al-Kindi of Basra (805-873) and Ibn Sina
("Avicenna", 980-1037) of Tehran, as well as Ibn Rushd ("Averroes", 1126-1198)
of Cordoba taught and examined Greek philosophy, sometimes trying to
reconcile it with Islamic teaching. Averroes was even called the "Aristotle of
Europe" (Menocal, The Arabic Role in Medieval Literary History). His work was
translated into Latin and Hebrew.

• When Spanish persecution of the Jews in Al-Andalus began, thinkers like Ibn

Maimun ("Maimonides", 1135-1204), an Arab-Judaic scholar of Aristotle, fled
Cordoba for Cairo, adding further to the flow of Greek ideas back and forth.

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Meanwhile in the
North/West...
"Aristotle's works lay dormant, while
Europe endured half a millenium of
endemic violence, poverty and
disorder. Little wonder that, during
this seemingly endless winter, those
seeking comfort and meaning would
turn to the certitudes of [Christian]
faith rather than the conundrums of
philosophy" (Rubinstein, Aristotle's
Children).
Boethius (480-
524AD)
"Aristotle became a vague, disembodied legend – an
ancient wizard, once very powerful, whose ideas were
now all but forgotten... That anything remained of
Aristotle's work in the West was largely the result of
one man's effort" (Rubinstein, Aristotle's Children).
• Boethius was a minister for King Theodoric of the
Ostrogoths (based on what is now Italy and
eastward into modern Bosnia), and he made it his
life's work to translate Greek philosophy into Latin
and provide commentary. 
• He also tried to make it more palatable for
Christians: in his work Consolation of Philosophy,
"Lady Philosophy" is employed as the "handmaid of
religion".

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 • Monasticism encouraged men and

Odi et amo women wishing to achieve personal

holiness through solitude and
contemplation.
• Monasteries became not only centres of
religion but also centres of learning:
between 500AD and 1000, as urban life
was disrupted and books
lost, intellectual minds took refuge in
monasteries and preserved and copied
ancient manuscripts as well as teaching.
• Irish monasteries in particular were
important as they regularly sent
missionaries back into Europe, and they
took with them the wish to copy and
preserve pagan as well as Christian
texts.
"For centuries the monasteries of Europe
were the chief sources of fresh copies of
books, as well as principal preserves of
them" (Eby and Arrowood, History and
Philosophy of Education, Ancient and
Medieval) 

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 • "They all perished together, Spanish Islam, Arabian

Minds finally meet

Aristotelianism, and Ibn Rushd. But there were
heirs: within a century all three had come to life again,
at the University of Paris" (Peters, Aristotle and
the Arabs).
• Before the availability of Islamic learning, particularly
spread via the madrasas of Al-Andalus, Western
thinkers had to survive on fragments of Roman
schools cobbled together by the likes of Boethius.
• The Muslim expansion into Spain and also Sicily
brought natural science, physics, astronomy, and
medicine, as well as the entire body of Aristotle's
works. Translations from Arabic into Latin generated
the birth of Western philosophy, centred in Toledo,
where Arab, Spanish, Italian and English scholars
worked with each other over the same ancient texts.
• As early as the 900s, northern Europeans travelled to
Spain and Sicily to advance their education and
ideas flowed back north through trade contacts and
political presence (Watt, The Influence of Islam on
Medieval Europe). Philosophical translations focused
on Aristotle.
• During the 12th and 13th centuries in Europe, there
were more inventions than in the previous thousand
years of human history.
• Universities as we know them today are born – Paris,
Bologna, Cambridge and Oxford. These institutions
taught among other things the translations made by
Averroes and other Islamic scholars.

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 Thomas Aquinas (1225-
1274)
• Born in Italy, Aquinas was a Dominican monk who studied at the
University of Paris.
• He was exposed to the arrival of Aristotle into Latin, and the
work of Arabic scholars such as Averroes on Aristotle. His
writings, particularly his Summa Theologica, are the chief vehicle
by which Aristotle is transmitted into Western philosophy. He
faced controvery during his lifetime but was canonized (made a
saint) after his death.
"The extraordinary impact Aquinas had on Western thought lay
especially in his own conviction that the judicious exercise of man's
empirical and rational intelligence, which had been empowered and
developed by the Greeks, could now marvelously serve the Christian
cause" (Tarnas, The Passion of the Western Mind).

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The Renaissance
(c.1300-1600s)
• This cultural movement originating in Italy revolutionised
not just philosophy but art, music, literature, science,
technology and architecture.
• In 1453 the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottoman
Empire finally ended the Byzantine Roman Empire and a
further flood of Greek manuscripts into the West.
• Dante Aligheri (1265-1321) wrote not only the Inferno,
but also philosophy clearly influenced by Aristotle:
"Everything is virtuous in its nature when it does that for
which it is ordained" (Convivio I V). 
• The concept of virtu was examined thoroughly and
was given impetus by the growing political complexity of
Western Society: how could moral virtue be reconciled
with more humanist Renaissance ideals of conduct?
Machiavelli (1469-1527) -Il • Secretary to the Florentine Republic, ruled over by the

Principe (1513)
Borgia family; Machiavelli wrote his great political
work, Il Principe (The Prince) after having been forced
into exile in the country when the Medici family
seized back power.
• He believed that "A prince should show himself to be
a lover of the virtues, and honor men excellent in
every art" (Prince, XXI) - but fraud and deceit should
be used to maintain power if necessary.
• Most often when he uses virtu he means military
prowess (virtuousi), which he sees as best embodying
the capacity for effective action. Effective action in a
world fraught with danger is, for him, more important
than strict philosophical morality: "How we live is so
far removed from how we ought to live, that he who
abandons what is done for what ought to be done will
rather learn to bring about his own ruin than his
preservation. A man who wishes to make a profession
of goodness in everything must necessarily come to
grief among so many who are not good" (Prince, XV).
• Sometimes cruel action could be virtuous: "He who
ponders well the whole question will find one thing
that looks like virtue, which to follow would be his
ruin, and another that looks like vice, which when
followed brings his security and well-being... If a
prince wants to maintain his rule, he must be prepared
not to be virtuous and to make use of this or not
according to need".

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Descartes and the dawn of
the Enlightenment
• Scientific advancement was one result of the Renaissance, and there was a greater challenge to the way things
had always been.

• "The dramatic success of the new science in explaining the natural world promotes philosophy from a
handmaiden of theology, constrained by its purposes and methods, to an independent force with the power and
authority to challenge the old and construct the new, in the realms both of theory and practice, on the basis of
its own principles... the Aristotelian teleological understanding of natural things [is] difficult to square with the
Enlightenment conception of nature" (Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy).

• Skepticism took hold and philosophers questioned everything.

• Rene Descartes (1596-1650) is on the borderline between virtue ethics and utilitarianism/deontology but he has
some recognisable Aristotelian ideas. (1) We have a short of window of opportunity to arrive at a moral
judgment and then act, and (2) the perceptions that in part serve as the basis for our judgments are ultimately
obscure and confused. These two features can give rise to irresolution. 

• Irresolution is a kind of anxiety which causes a person to withhold from performing an action, creating a
cognitive space for the person to make a choice (Passions III.170, AT XI: 459/CSM I: 390). But too much
irresolution prevents you from judging or acting at all! So we must use our resolve and make a decision: we need
to establish a firm resolve to arrive at our best moral judgments and to carry them out, even though these
judgments are only morally certain and can be false. 

• Moral certainty is not quite as you'd like it perhaps:"[C]ertainty which is sufficient to regulate our behaviour, or
which measures up to certainty we have on matters relating to the conduct of life which we never doubt, though
we know that it is possible, absolutely speaking, that they may be false". (Principles IV.204, AT VIIIA: 327/CSM I:
289)
The rise of rules

"The word deontology derives from the Greek words

for duty (deon) and science (or study) of (logos). In
contemporary moral philosophy, deontology is one
of those kinds of normative theories regarding which
choices are morally required, forbidden, or
permitted. In other words, deontology falls within
the domain of moral theories that guide and assess
our choices of what we ought to do (deontic
theories), in contrast to (aretaic [virtue] theories)
that-fundamentally, at least-guide and assess what
kind of person (in terms of character traits) we are
and should be." (Alexander & Moore, 2012)
 An interval...
for a few
hundred
years

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The resurgence of virtue
ethics (per Kotva, 1996)
"[...] three factors in particular have helped renew interest in virtue ethics:
(1) the widespread perception that our society is in moral crisis, (2) the rise
of historical consciousness, and (3) the failure of modern ethical theories to
provide a complete picture of human moral experience."
"[...] another factor helping to renew interest in virtue ethics is the growth
in the second half of the twentieth century of what might loosely be called
'historical consciousness'. Moral theologians and philosophers have
increasingly recognized the relevance of our historical nature. We are
historical creatures, situated in specific historical and cultural contexts with
particular beliefs, practices, and commitments. All knowledge, including
moral knowledge, is historically grounded and at some level informed by
the setting from within which it is known. The growing realization of
history's relevance is altering ethical theory in at least two general ways:
(1) limiting the role and status of rules, and (2) increasing the attention
given to one's context".

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Virtue ethics in the 20th
century
• Alisdair McIntyre, Julia Annas, Rosalind Hursthouse, Elizabeth
Anscombe and more.
• Moves away from eudaimonism to focusing primarily on
morally good character/personality: happiness might well flow
from this but not necessarily.
• You don’t need the kind of moral generalism that utilitarians
and Kantians espouse. Modern VE focuses on
moral particularism, that is it teaches that there are only good
or bad moral judgments in paricular moral contexts and
particular social communities, not good or bad general moral
principles abstracted from contexts or communities. Moral
virtue is shown by a person's making good judgments in their
particular social/historical context.
It's still not
perfect...yet
• If virtuous choices and actions are morally good and right because that's
just what virtuous people do... you haven't really answered the question
and this points to there being some theory of good/bad, right/wrong
that is rationally justified independently of the fact of moral virtue itself.
Moral virtue must be a secondary moral fact, not the primary starting
point.
• There are many more historical contexts in which moral decisions re
needed, than available virtues! And if phronesis is doing all the heavy
lifting, then virtue ethics is rationaliyu-based, not primarily virtue-based.
• VE proposes that if you have one moral virtue you must have all of them.
But it seems pretty possible for someone to have some and not all, e.g.
to be generous but also a coward. Again, are we relying on phronesis
again?
• Still no answer for how you address outdated virtues: someone like Plato
who owned slaves would have been cosidered internally and
externally virtuous relative to that community and that context – can we
really say this was virtuous behaviour?

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Aristotle and AI?
• Society is entering uncharted territory and
unprecedented sociotechnical challenges: social
media, surveillance technologies, AI.
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future developments on our morality.

• Some like Prof. Shannon Vallor (a philosopher of
technology, no less) suggest that human-centred VE
and the cultivation of good habits, plus relating to
others in a moral community, can form the
groundwork for good ethical practices in an ever
changing environment.
• Think about self driving cars and the A-level
algorithm... the need for wise decisions in situations
Aristotle never dreamed of is clear.

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Initial conclusions

• Whatever your view of virtue ethics, it

has been extremely influential and is
likely to become more so during our
lifetimes
• Our instinctive focus on people and their
characteristics remains
• This is recognised by the governing
principles of good character for
professionals, particularly for lawyers.
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The concept of
"character" for
professionals

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 • To have an initial look at the concept of "character" for lawyers
Objectives • To consider the key principles that the Bar and SRA impose and
• To see how a recent case sets the bar very high for honesty & integrity

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Honesty and its importance for professionals
• Rated in our SGS 1 Quiz as number 1 in importance 
Virtuous Character for the Practice of Law - Research Report, Jubilee Centre for Character & Virtues, 2014
• In selecting six strengths expected in the ‘ideal’ lawyer, all four respondent groups chose judgement,
perseverance, perspective and fairness. Judgement and honesty were selected by 84% of solicitors and 93% of
barristers. Fairness and perseverance appeared in the top six choices for respondents selecting both ideal
qualities and personal qualities. 
But: 
• Whilst morality was viewed by the majority of respondents as being at the core of being a good lawyer... some
respondents expressed concerns about moral standards with specific mention of tax law as an area where the
nature of professional advice frequently required manipulation of the law and diverged from the expectations
of ordinary morality. 
• 60% of solicitors surveyed answered ‘sometimes’ to statements including ‘my work requires that I hide my
feelings’, ‘my work involves tasks that are in conflict with my personal values’ and ‘at work it is difficult to do
the right thing’. Commercial factors were most frequently cited pressures but the positive influence of good
role models was apparent. These findings indicate some constraints and anxieties about the maintenance of a
virtuous character in the practice of law. 
Might virtue ethics help?
Key findings:
• The high standard of intellectual ability required to practice law should also be
applied more vigorously and extensively in analysing and reflecting upon ethical
and virtuous practice in the law. Initial education and training needs to find ways
to sustain and develop motivations relating to justice and fairness so that they
become embodied in professional life. 
• Earlier and greater emphasis on the wider ethical context of legal practice can
better prepare individuals for the pressures of the workplace. As a crucible for
shaping ethical behaviour and sentiment, local communities of professional
practice are often viewed as more influential than compliance systems. Initial
training is brief compared with the career-long influence of the workplace and, if
the culture is skewed towards commercial reward and over-zealous pursuit of a
‘good result for the client’ (Joy, 2013:405), ‘good law’ can become dubiously re-
defined. 

• Awareness of alternative ethical methods… promotes a whole-of-situation

perspective which is both morally liberating and also morally responsible. The
strength of virtue ethics is that it does not have to sweep away all other approaches
to ethics or require lawyers to become slaves to any particular ethical method in their
decision making. (Evans, 2011:71)
 SRA | Assessment of Character and Suitability Rules | Solicitors Regulation Authority

Solicitors – When considering your character and suitability, the SRA will take into account the overriding
need to:
character and • protect the public and the public interest; and
• maintain public trust and confidence in the solicitors' profession and in legal services
suitability provided by authorised persons.
• In doing so, the SRA will take into account the nature of your role, and your individual
circumstances, on a case by case basis (Rule 2)

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Criminal Conduct (rule 3.1) - Most Serious
• You have been convicted by a court of a criminal offence:

• for which you received a custodial or suspended sentence;

• involving dishonesty, fraud, perjury, and/or bribery;

• of a violent or sexual nature;

• associated with obstructing the course of justice;

• which demonstrated behaviour showing signs of discrimination towards others; or

• associated with terrorism.

• You have been convicted by a court of more than one criminal offence (these could be
less serious offences when considered in isolation but taken more seriously because of
frequency and/or repetition).

• You have shown a pattern of criminal offences or criminal behaviours (eg starting from a
caution but moving through to convictions).

• You have accepted a caution from the police for an offence involving dishonesty, violence
or discrimination, or a sexual offence.

• You have been included on the Violent and Sex Offenders register.

Table 1: Criminal conduct

Criminal Conduct – (rule 3
continued) - Less serious
• You have accepted a caution for, or been
convicted by a court of a criminal offence not
falling within the most serious category (which
is likely to result in refusal).
• You are currently subject to a conditional
discharge or bind over by a court.

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Non-exhaustive list of character issues
Type of
behaviour Examples
Integrity and You have behaved in a way:
independence •which is dishonest;
•which is violent;
•which is threatening or harassing;
•where there is evidence of discrimination towards others.
You have misused your position to obtain pecuniary advantage.
You have misused your position of trust in relation to vulnerable people.
The SRA has evidence reflecting on the honesty and integrity of a person you are related to,
affiliated with, or act together with where the SRA has reason to believe that the person
 may have an influence over the way in which you will exercise your authorised role.
Other issues
Assessment offences You have committed and/or have been adjudged by an education establishment
to have committed a deliberate assessment offence, which amounts to
plagiarism or cheating, in order to gain an advantage for you or others.
Financial Avoiding debts
Being made bankrupt
you cannot satisfactorily manage your finances (eg you have fallen behind with
six or more consecutive payments and/or have been registered with a credit
reference agency);
you are subject to possession proceedings (eg for falling behind on mortgage
payments) and/or are subject to a Liability Order (eg for non-payment of council
tax).
 Aggravating and mitigating factors

Repeated behaviour,
No evidence of No evidence of steps or a pattern of
No (or little) evidence You were in a position
Aggravating Factors successful taken to remedy behaviour, or event
of remorse. of trust.
rehabilitation. conduct. occurred very
recently.

Behaviour likely to
Vulnerability of those Evidence of steps
You held a senior harm public Evidence of successful
impacted by the Mitigating Factors taken to remedy
position. confidence in the rehabilitation.
behaviour. conduct.
profession.

Behaviour unlikely to
One off event, or No evidence of harm Credible and cogent
You were in a junior harm public
Evidence of remorse. event occurred some being caused to supporting
or non-legal role. confidence in the
time ago. individuals. references.
profession.
The ongoing obligation (rr. 6.5-6.7)

• You have an ongoing obligation to tell the SRA promptly about

anything that raises a question as to your 
character and suitability, or any change to information
previously disclosed to the SRA in support of your application,
after it has been made. This obligation continues once you have
been admitted as a solicitor, registered as an REL or an RFL, or
approved as a role holder.
• The onus is on you to provide any evidence relevant to the 
SRA's consideration of your character and suitability. However,
the SRA may undertake any investigation as it considers
appropriate to determine your character and suitability and
may verify any evidence you provide with a third party.
• If you fail to disclose any information relevant to the SRA's
 assessment of your character and suitability, the SRA will take
this into account when making a determination as to your 
character and suitability.
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 Barristers – Honesty, integrity
and independence
• rC8

• You must not do anything which could reasonably be seen by the public to undermine your honesty, integrity (CD3) and independence (CD4).

• rC9

• Your duty to act with honesty and with integrity under CD3 includes the following requirements:

• .1 you must not knowingly or recklessly mislead or attempt to mislead anyone;

• .2 you must not draft any statement of case, witness statement, affidavit or other document containing:

• .a any statement of fact or contention which is not supported by your client or by your instructions;

• .b any contention which you do not consider to be properly arguable;

• .c any allegation of fraud, unless you have clear instructions to allege fraud and you have reasonably credible material which establishes an arguable
case of fraud;

• .d (in the case of a witness statement or affidavit) any statement of fact other than the evidence which you reasonably believe the witness would give
if the witness were giving evidence orally;

• .3 you must not encourage a witness to give evidence which is misleading or untruthful;

• .4 you must not rehearse, practise with or coach a witness in respect of their evidence;

• .5 unless you have the permission of the representative for the opposing side or of the court, you must not communicate with any witness (including
your client) about the case while the witness is giving evidence;

• .6 you must not make, or offer to make, payments to any witness which are contingent on their evidence or on the outcome of the case;

• .7 you must only propose, or accept, fee arrangements which are legal.

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Further guidance
• gC24
• In addition to the above, where the other side is legally represented and you are conducting correspondence in respect of the particular matter,
you are expected to correspond at all times with that other party’s legal representative – otherwise you may be regarded as breaching CD3 or Rule
C9.
Other possible breaches of CD3 and/or CD5
• gC25
• A breach of Rule rC9 may also constitute a breach of CD3 and/or CD5. Other conduct which is likely to be treated as a breach of CD3 and/or CD5
includes (but is not limited to):
• .1 subject to Guidance C27 below, breaches of Rule rC8;
• .2 breaches of Rule rC10;
• .3 criminal conduct, other than minor criminal offences (see Guidance C27);
• .4 seriously offensive or discreditable conduct towards third parties;
• .5 dishonesty;
• .6 unlawful victimisation or harassment; or
• .7 abuse of your professional position.
• gC26
• For the purposes of Guidance gC25.7 above, referring to your status as a barrister, for example on professional notepaper, in a context where it is
irrelevant, such as in a private dispute, may well constitute abuse of your professional position and thus involve a breach of CD3 and/or CD5.
Minor criminal offences
• gC27
• Conduct which is not likely to be treated as a breach of Rules rC8 or rC9, or CD3 or CD5, includes (but is not
limited to):
• .1 minor criminal offences;
• .2 your conduct in your private or personal life, unless this involves:
• .a abuse of your professional position; or
• .b committing a criminal offence, other than a minor criminal offence.
• gC28
• For the purpose of Guidance C27 above, minor criminal offences include:
• .1 an offence committed in the United Kingdom which is a fixed-penalty offence under the Road Traffic
Offenders Act 1988; or
• .2 an offence committed in the United Kingdom or abroad which is dealt with by a procedure substantially
similar to that for such a fixed-penalty offence; or
• .3 an offence whose main ingredient is the unlawful parking of a motor vehicle.
And once through the doors, you have to
always act with honesty & integrity
Introduction to the SRA Principles
The SRA Principles comprise the fundamental tenets of ethical behaviour that we expect all those that we regulate to uphold. This includes
all individuals we authorise to provide legal services (solicitors, RELs and RFLs), as well as authorised firms and their managers and
employees. For licensed bodies, these apply to those individuals, and the part of the body (where applicable), involved in delivering the
services we regulate in accordance with the terms of your licence.
Should the Principles come into conflict, those which safeguard the wider public interest (such as the rule of law, and public confidence in a
trustworthy solicitors' profession and a safe and effective market for regulated legal services) take precedence over an individual client's
interests. You should, where relevant, inform your client of the circumstances in which your duty to the Court and other professional
obligations will outweigh your duty to them.
Principles
You act:
• in a way that upholds the constitutional principle of the rule of law, and the proper administration of justice.
• in a way that upholds public trust and confidence in the solicitors' profession and in legal services provided by authorised persons.
• with independence.
• with honesty.
• with integrity.
• in a way that encourages equality, diversity and inclusion.
• in the best interests of each client.
Wingate & Anor v SRA
[2018] EWCA Civ 366
•  2 partners in a law firm in debt took out a funding agreement.
• The monies were supposed to be used solely for funding specific cases.
However, they paid a number of debts with some of the money and also
paid themselves a dividend.
• When the funder went into receivership and the solicitors failed to repay
the monies, the issue was discovered and the SRA started investigating.
• Wingate claimed there was a verbal agreement with the funder
which overrode the written terms and permitted them to use the
monies as they saw fit; Evans said he relied totally on Wingate's
representations about this verbal agreement. The SDT acquitted them.
• On appeal by the SRA, court held that written agreement was a sham;
Wingate failed to appreciate this and was manifestly incompetent in
breach of his duty to act honestly; Mr Evans should have read the
written agreements and realised something was amiss, so was similarly
in breach of the honesty principle though he had acted with integrity.
• Wingate & Evans appealed to the court of Appeal but were unsuccessful.
Lord Justice Rupert Jackson
• This judgment is not... a Socratic quest for ultimate truth. It is simply an examination of what meaning the law
ascribes honesty, integrity and related concepts".

• “Honesty is a basic moral quality which is expected of all members of society. It involves being truthful about
important matters and respecting the property rights of others. Telling lies about things that matter or committing
fraud or stealing are generally regarded as dishonest conduct…The legal concept of dishonesty is grounded upon the
shared values of our multi-cultural society. Because dishonesty is grounded upon basic shared values, there is no
undue difficulty in identifying what is or is not dishonest.” 

• “Integrity is a more nebulous concept…In professional codes of conduct, the term ‘integrity’ is a useful shorthand to
express the higher standards which society expects from professional persons and which the professions expect from
their own members…The underlying rationale is that the professions have a privileged and trusted role in society. In
return they are required to live up to their own professional standards…Integrity connotes adherence to the ethical
standards of one’s own profession. That involves more than mere honesty.” 

• “Principle 6 is directed to preserving the reputation of, and public confidence in, the legal profession. It is possible to
think of many forms of conduct which would undermine public confidence in the legal profession. Manifest
incompetence is one example. A solicitor acting carelessly, but with integrity, will breach Principle 6 if his careless
conduct goes beyond mere professional negligence and constitutes ‘manifest incompetence’...” 

• Lord Justice Jackson concluded that integrity for solicitors was about more than simply acting honestly. Instead,
professional people should have a duty to adhere to higher moral standards not only in what they say but what they
do.

• ‘The professions have a privileged and trusted role in society. In return they are required to live up to their o wn
professional standards. Integrity connotes adherence to the ethical standards of one’s own profession. That involves more than mere honesty… a
professional person is expected to be even more scrupulous about accuracy than a member of the general public in daily discourse.’
What does this mean for
lawyers?
• It seems that Aristotelian ideas of good
character have persisted right the way through
to our conduct rules
• As we'll see, the ethical rules that apply to
barristers and solicitors provide a framework
with a lot of grey areas
• A lawyer needs to not only be able to make
good decisions but also be seen to do so; and
they need to recognise when an occurrence in
their daily practice constitutes a conduct issue
rather than a run of the mill issue of procedure This Photo by Unknown author is licensed under CC BY.

or strategy.
For next week • We are going to consider some of these principles in more detail and look at
their practical application