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Does the Ethos of Law Erode? Lawyers’ Professional Practices, Self-Understanding and Ethics at Work

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  • Bernadette Loacker

    (Lancaster University Management School
    Karlshochschule International University)

Abstract

Furthering an integrative ethics-as-practice framework, this paper explores the professional practices, self-understanding and ethics of lawyers working in the Germanic legal context. Existing studies of the legal profession often argue that changing conditions in law have led to a ‘constrained morality’ and an ‘erosion of ethos’ among lawyers. While the current study acknowledges shifts in lawyers’ ethos, it challenges the claim of an erosion or ‘lack’ of morality. The narratives of the interviewed practitioners rather suggest that socio-discursively constituted professional practices, identity and ethics are complex and contingent. Focusing on the ‘moral rules in use’ and how lawyers negotiate ethical matters ‘from within’ evokes ongoing ambiguities and struggles inscribed in ethical (self-)positions, pointing, as such, to the limits of assessing lawyers’ conduct as ‘ethical’ or ‘unethical’. The study thereby extends both normative and practice-based business and professional ethics studies.

Suggested Citation

  • Bernadette Loacker, 2023. "Does the Ethos of Law Erode? Lawyers’ Professional Practices, Self-Understanding and Ethics at Work," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 187(1), pages 33-52, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:187:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1007_s10551-022-05276-x
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-022-05276-x
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Pascal Dey & Chris Steyaert, 2016. "Rethinking the Space of Ethics in Social Entrepreneurship: Power, Subjectivity, and Practices of Freedom," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 133(4), pages 627-641, February.
    2. Dawn Yi Lin Chow & Thomas Calvard, 2021. "Constrained Morality in the Professional Work of Corporate Lawyers," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 170(2), pages 213-228, May.
    3. Bernadette Loacker & Sara Muhr, 2009. "How Can I Become a Responsible Subject? Towards a Practice-Based Ethics of Responsiveness," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 90(2), pages 265-277, December.
    4. Jones, Thomas M. & Gautschi, Frederick H., 1992. "Moral Commitment and the Ethical Attorney," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 2(4), pages 391-404, October.
    5. Bjorn Fasterling, 2009. "The Managerial Law Firm and the Globalization of Legal Ethics," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 88(1), pages 21-34, August.
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