Importance of ethics

22 April 2026

Ethics is fundamental to the role of a solicitor. Most people don't use legal services often, but when they do, it is usually at crucial moments in their life. For instance, buying a house, dealing with an unscrupulous employer or handling a relationship breakdown. Large amounts of money or even a client's liberty can be at stake. The public need to be able to trust that solicitors are not only expert and professionally competent, but also that they will meet high ethical standards.

We regulate more than 170,000 solicitors and the majority will meet the standards we all expect. Cases where solicitors act dishonestly, or without integrity, are rare. But when solicitors act unethically it can have profound consequences. Not only for those directly impacted – such as clients or people on the other side of a case – but it can also undermine the proper functioning of the justice system and erode public trust in legal services.

The potential severity of these impacts has been illustrated in the Post Office Horizon scandal. One of the most severe miscarriages of justice in British history, from wrongful convictions to financial ruin, there has been devastating impacts on the lives of hundreds of people. It has raised serious questions about the conduct of some members of the profession involved. We have not yet drawn conclusions in specific cases, but have more than 20 live investigations into solicitors and law firms linked to the scandal.

The proper administration of justice relies on solicitors behaving with integrity. As officers of the court, solicitors should never let interests, such as the outcome for their client, undermine the collective trust the public place in the profession.

High ethical standards are the foundation for our thriving legal sector, but they cannot be a project for the regulator alone. As part of our commitment to fixing the foundations of our work, particularly our focus on better collaboration, the SRA wants to work with the sector to embed ethical conduct in all parts of a solicitor's working life.

Our role in driving high ethical standards

We are here to drive high ethical standards in the profession. That starts by making sure those who qualify have demonstrated that they understand their ethical obligations and how they apply in practice. Ethics is assessed throughout the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE).

Ethics should be front and centre of solicitors' minds in all they do. Our expectations are set out clearly in the SRA Principles – for instance, solicitors must act with honesty and integrity, with independence and in the interests of justice, while acting in the best interests of their client.

In many situations, the ethical lines are unambiguous. Solicitors must not lie to their client, mislead a court or steal a client's money.

However, there are scenarios which can be more complicated, requiring considered ethical judgement. Sometimes the principles of ethical expectations can come into tension. For example, the duty to act in the best interest of their client with a solicitors' duty to the court. In these instances, a solicitor's duty to the court will override other principles. In other scenarios it isn't always easy to identify where an ethical issue arises – for instance, where there is a potential conflict of interest which means it is not appropriate for a solicitor to act for a client. And we recognise that solicitors are often having to make ethical choices in high-pressure, busy working environments.

Supporting the profession

We are committed to supporting the profession to help them successfully navigate these challenges. Good regulation is not simply about enforcement after the fact, but about listening and offering practical support to help people back into compliance. We engage closely with the profession, offering practical advice, insights and support. We provide support to around 25,000 solicitors each year through our Ethics Helpline, while over the years thousands of solicitors have joined our events and webinars to explore ethical issues.

We have also published a range of resources to support the profession. These are focused on areas where we know there can be particular issues. So we have developed additional guidance for in-house solicitors, recognising the unique challenges in their work, including potential pressure from their employer to act unethically.

We also recognise that workplace culture plays a key role in driving good practice. Unsupportive, bullying or toxic working environment can lead to poorer outcomes for clients and greater pressure to act unethically. We have published guidance to make clear our expectations of firms, and to support impacted staff, including how they can report inappropriate behaviour to us.

Holding solicitors to account

Public trust also rests on us holding those to account who have behaved egregiously. We will take enforcement action where needed to protect clients and the wider public. In the most serious cases, we will refer solicitors to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, where they can be suspended or banned from practising. Last year we took around 100 cases to the Tribunal.

However, we don't want to just act through enforcement action, once damage has already been done. A more proactive approach means doing more to identify issues or areas of uncertainty early. we are keen to make sure we are doing all we can to make sure ethics is at the heart of lawyers' practice.

Further work to drive ethical behaviours

We recognise that there is more to do. We need to respond to a legal sector that is changing rapidly. The advent of widespread use of AI offers significant opportunities for legal services to be delivered more effectively and efficiently, but is also creating new ethical challenges. The rapid growth of the high-volume consumer claims sector can offer increased access to justice for the public, when it works well, but is also raising ethical concerns about the practice of some firms and solicitors.

We welcome the publication of the Legal Services Board's statement of policy on upholding professional ethical duties. And we are progressing work to identity where we can go further to strengthen our ethical requirements and support.

One area where we want to do more is to encourage ongoing ethical conversations and reflection among those we regulate. The vast majority of solicitors want to do the right thing, but the realities of everyday practice can give rise to difficult and complex ethical issues. An open culture, support from leadership and ongoing reflection and discussion can all help solicitors navigate these issues. So we will be consulting on updating our continuing competence requirements, which will include proposals to make sure all solicitors participate in mandatory structured ethical discussions each year. Our insights suggest this could be valuable in helping drive ethical practice.

We also want to know whether there is more we should be doing prior to qualification to embed ethical thinking and behaviours from the start of a solicitor's career.

Get involved

We need to make sure our work in this area is properly informed by the realities and complexities of legal practice.

Later this spring, we will launch a listening exercise to gather insights from the profession and others involved in the legal sector. We will be exploring what factors are driving unethical behaviour, and what we can do to address them, including through providing greater support to those we regulate.

Close collaboration will be crucial if we are to identify the right solutions. So please do get involved in our consultation and events to let us know your views. This work reflects our wider shift in 2026 towards being a more proactive and effective regulator – one that sets clear expectations, supports good practice and, ultimately, maintains public trust and confidence that our legal sector is driven by high ethical standards.