Chapter 5: Ethics in Externship Practice

In Canada, students must take a stand-alone course on legal ethics, as required by the Federation of Law Societies of Canada. As such, most students will have some introductory – and perhaps advanced – understanding of legal ethics. As students know, ethics in law practice is distinct from other disciplinary approaches, particularly in philosophy. Lawyering is at its heart a matter of practicing good judgment in situations of uncertainty. Ethics are therefore essential to practicing good judgment both in metaethical and normative terms. This Chapter is not a comprehensive examination of legal ethics, and should not replace a more generalized and academic introduction to the subject. Here, we highlight certain ethical duties that are particularly salient in an externship context, especially for students in the earliest days of their practice experience.