Law practice management
This section contains Rules 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, and 43.
36. Advertising
- A solicitor or principal of a law practice must ensure that any advertising, marketing, or promotion in connection with the solicitor or law practice is not:
- false;
- misleading or deceptive or likely to mislead or deceive;
- offensive; or
- prohibited by law.
- A solicitor must not convey a false, misleading or deceptive impression of specialist expertise and must not advertise or authorise advertising in a manner that uses the words “accredited specialist” or a derivative of those words (including post-nominals), unless the solicitor is a specialist accredited by the relevant professional association.
37. Supervision of legal services
- A solicitor with designated responsibility for a matter must exercise reasonable supervision over solicitors and all other employees engaged in the provision of the legal services for that matter.
38. Returning judicial officers
- A solicitor who is a former judicial officer must not appear in:
- any court if the solicitor has been a member thereof or presided therein; or
- any court from which appeals to any court of which the solicitor was formerly a member may be made or brought, for a period of two years after ceasing to hold that office unless permitted by the relevant court.
39. Legal and non-legal services
- Where a solicitor or law practice:
39.1.1. shares an office with or is otherwise affiliated with an entity or business engaged in another calling to provide services other than legal services to a client, and
39.1.2. a client is receiving services concurrently from both the law practice and the other entity,
the solicitor, or law practice, as the case requires, must take all reasonable steps to ensure that the client is clearly informed about the nature and the terms of the services being provided to the client by the solicitor or law practice, including (if applicable) that the services provided by the other entity are not provided by solicitor or the law practice as legal services.
40. Sharing receipts
- A solicitor must not, in relation to the conduct of the solicitor’s practice, or the delivery of legal services, share, or enter into any arrangement for the sharing of, the receipts arising from, or in connection with, the provision of legal services by the solicitor, with:
- any disqualified person; or
- any person:
- who has been found guilty of an indictable offence; or
- who has had a guilty plea accepted in relation to an indictable offence that involved dishonest conduct, whether or not a conviction was recorded.
41. Mortgage financing and managed investments
Omitted.
42. Anti-discrimination and harassment
- A solicitor must not in the course of, or in connection with, legal practice or their profession, engage in conduct which constitutes:
- discrimination;
- sexual harassment;
- any other form of harassment; or
- workplace bullying.
43. Dealing with the regulatory authority
- Subject only to their duty to the client, a solicitor must be timely, open and frank in their dealings with a regulatory authority.
- Omitted