Continuing Legal Education: Rethinking Professional Ethics and Responsibility in India

The declining standards in legal profession, coupled with loss of public trust and confidence, call for emphasis on a deeper understanding of professional ethics among lawyers and perhaps articulate a different notion of professional responsibility that extends beyond the standards of professional conduct and etiquette for lawyers. The 266th Report of Law Commission of India highlighted the need to structure legal education and to bring ethical standards in legal profession. In this regard, the article proposes to mandate continuing legal education (CLE) for legal professionals. The purpose of introduction of CLE programme is to emphasize upon the quality of advocacy. Further, it was to implement the concept of professional responsibility, which provides that a lawyer should represent a client competently. In this regard, CLE programme might help lawyers to re-inform, re-imagine and reconstruct the legal profession in India in ethical and responsible ways. This article discusses the considerations and the process that must led to the adoption of the CLE plan