§ discipline

Personal probity and fitness to practise integrity

The lawyer must remain a fit and proper person to practise and must not engage in conduct, in or out of practice, demonstrating they are unfit.

1,116 cases 62% strike-off avg suspension 28.3 mo avg fine 2,750 11 with dishonesty finding

How the codes express this duty

E&W Solicitors SRA Principles & Code Principle 2; CCS Introduction partial 874 cases
Conduct does not need to take place in a workplace in order to relate to your practice - these requirements capture conduct which touches realistically upon your practice of the profession ... 1.2 in a way that upholds public trust and confidence in the solicitors' profession and in legal services provided by authorised persons.

SRA Principles · 2023 · archived copy · official source ↗

E&W Barristers BSB Handbook CD5; gC25; gC27 strong 85 cases
CD5 You must not behave in a way which is likely to diminish the trust and confidence which the public places in you or in the profession. gC25 ... conduct which is likely to be treated as a breach of CD3 and/or CD5 includes ... .3 criminal conduct, other than minor criminal offences (see Guidance C27); ... .5 dishonesty;

BSB Handbook · current · archived copy · official source ↗

Cayman Islands Legal Services Code 2026 P.2; R.3.1 partial
Attorneys-at-law shall not, in their professional and personal lives, act in any way which brings or which may reasonably bring the legal profession or the provision of legal services in the Cayman Islands into disrepute.

Cayman Islands Legal Services Code of Professional Conduct · 2026 · archived copy

AU Solicitors Solicitors' Conduct Rules Rule 5.1.1 strong 63 cases
A solicitor must not engage in conduct, in the course of legal practice or otherwise, which: 5.1.1 demonstrates that the solicitor is not a fit and proper person to practise law.

Australian Solicitors' Conduct Rules · 2015 (June 2026 compilation) · archived copy · official source ↗

AU Barristers Uniform Barristers Rules rr12(a),13 strong 13 cases
A barrister must not engage in conduct which is: (a) dishonest or otherwise discreditable to a barrister ... A barrister must not engage in another vocation which: (a) is liable to adversely affect the reputation of the legal profession or the barrister's own reputation.

Legal Profession Uniform Conduct (Barristers) Rules · 2015 (as amended 14 May 2025) · archived copy · official source ↗

IE Solicitors Law Society Guide Ch6 — Professional standard of conduct strong 6 cases
A solicitor, whether in their professional capacity or otherwise, must not engage in any conduct that is fraudulent, deceitful, or in any way contrary to their position as a solicitor and as an officer of the court.

Solicitor's Guide to Professional Conduct (Law Society of Ireland) · 4th ed. (2022) · archived copy · official source ↗

IE Barristers Bar Code of Conduct Rule 2.3(c); Rule 2.12 strong 6 cases
not to engage in conduct (whether in pursuit of their profession or otherwise) which may bring the Barristers' profession into disrepute, which may injure the dignity and high standing of the profession, or which is likely to diminish the trust and confidence placed in them or in the profession;

Code of Conduct for the Bar of Ireland · 2024 · archived copy · official source ↗

JM Attorneys Canons of Professional Ethics Canon III(k); Canon I(b) strong 70 cases
Where an Attorney commits any criminal offence which in the opinion of the Disciplinary Committee is of a nature likely to bring the profession into disrepute, such commission of the offence shall constitute misconduct in a professional respect ... [I(b)] An Attorney shall at all times maintain the honour and dignity of the profession and shall abstain from behaviour which may tend to discredit the profession.

Legal Profession (Canons of Professional Ethics) Rules · 1978 (principal) · archived copy · official source ↗

JE Lawyers Law Society of Jersey Code P.2; GP.6 strong
Members must not, in their professional and personal lives, act in any way which brings or which may fairly bring the legal profession or the provision of legal services in Jersey into disrepute... Disgraceful conduct (including conviction of any criminal offence, other than a minor traffic offence) outside a member's practice may place them in breach of P.2.

Law Society of Jersey Code of Conduct · 1 January 2017 · archived copy · official source ↗

ON Lawyers LSO Rules of Prof. Conduct r 2.1-1 commentary [3] strong
Dishonourable or questionable conduct on the part of a lawyer in either private life or professional practice will reflect adversely upon the integrity of the profession and the administration of justice. Whether within or outside the professional sphere, if the conduct is such that knowledge of it would be likely to impair a client's trust in the lawyer, the Law Society may be justified in taking disciplinary action.

Law Society of Ontario — Rules of Professional Conduct · current · archived copy · official source ↗

BC Lawyers BC Code r 2.2-1, commentary [3] strong 2 cases
Dishonourable or questionable conduct on the part of a lawyer in either private life or professional practice will reflect adversely upon the integrity of the profession and the administration of justice. Whether within or outside the professional sphere, if the conduct is such that knowledge of it would be likely to impair a client's trust in the lawyer, the Society may be justified in taking disciplinary action.

Code of Professional Conduct for British Columbia (BC Code) · 2017 · archived copy · official source ↗

NZ Lawyers Conduct & Client Care Rules r 1.4 strong
The kinds of conduct ... for which a lawyer ... may be disciplined are as follows: ... (c) negligence or incompetence ... so frequent as to reflect on the lawyer's fitness to practise ...; (d) conviction of an offence punishable by imprisonment where the conviction reflects on the lawyer's fitness to practise, or tends to bring the legal profession into disrepute.

Lawyers and Conveyancers Act (Lawyers: Conduct and Client Care) Rules 2008 · SR 2008/214 · archived copy · official source ↗

SCO Solicitors LSS Standards of Conduct B1.2 partial 4 cases
You must be trustworthy and act honestly at all times so that your personal integrity is beyond question.

Law Society of Scotland — Practice Rules 2011, Rule B1 (Standards of Conduct) · 2011 · archived copy · official source ↗

SG Lawyers Professional Conduct Rules 2015 r 4(c) partial
A legal practitioner has a duty to discharge honourably and with integrity all of the legal practitioner’s responsibilities to any tribunal before which the legal practitioner appears, the legal practitioner’s clients, the public and other members of the legal profession.

Legal Profession (Professional Conduct) Rules 2015 · 2015 · archived copy · official source ↗

HK Solicitors Solicitors' Guide Principle 1.03 Commentary strong
As an Officer of the Court, proper standards of behaviour whether in his practice or in his independent business activities are required of a solicitor as a member of an honourable profession.

Hong Kong Solicitors' Guide to Professional Conduct (Volume 1) · current · archived copy · official source ↗

HK Barristers Bar Code of Conduct para 4.1(b) strong
not to engage in conduct (whether in pursuit of his profession or otherwise) which is:- (i) dishonest or otherwise discreditable to a barrister; (ii) likely to bring the profession of barrister into disrepute or otherwise diminish public confidence in the profession of barrister;

Code of Conduct of the Bar of the Hong Kong SAR · 2018 · archived copy · official source ↗

Cases dealing with this duty

Clear

70 decisions · link basis: found breached = a tribunal finding; rule cited = the mapped provision is cited in the decision; text match = high-precision text pattern

Duty classification does not yet cover every jurisdiction (Ontario, New Zealand and Singapore decisions are indexed but not yet duty-classified), so counts here understate those corpora.