Universitat Internacional de Catalunya - Barcelona

Professional Ethics

• code 10317
• course 1
• term Semester 1
• type OB
• credits 3

Main language of instruction: Spanish

Other languages of instruction: Catalan

Head instructor

Dr. Carlos DE MIRANDA - cdemiranda@uic.es

Office hours

Any question concerning the progress of the module, its content or its evaluation should be addressed to the coordinator of the module, prof. Carlos de Miranda, cdemiranda@uic.es.

In this module of the Master two clearly differentiated subjects are dealt with. On the one hand, the 'Professional ethics' and, on the other, the 'Organization of the profession'.

The knowledge and proper management of ethical standards are indispensable for the lawyer in his professional practice. It constitutes an ethical corpus that governs the way of conducting the lawyer in his habitual duty and in the relations he establishes with clients, with opponents, with other colleagues and with collegial, judicial and other institutions.

On the other hand, we have some knowledge and skills that the lawyer does not learn during the studies of degree, but that then they are absolutely indispensable to him to develop its profession, of autonomous form or as member of a collective. I am referring to such disparate issues as legal marketing, office tools or the economic-administrative aspects of the office (budgets, custom sheets, billing, etc.).

In terms of "professional ethics", to know and master the normative requirements, applied to specific, real cases, focusing, in addition, this learning to the successful passing of the state examination.

As for the "Organization of the profession", to know, with the help of experienced professionals, the main tools complementary to the legal knowledge, which allow the proper functioning of a law firm (legal marketing, information technology and management programs of legal firms, administrative and economic management of the firm, etc.).

• CB08 - Know how to incorporate acquired knowledge and deal with making complex judgements based on information which, being incomplete or limited, includes reflections on social and ethical responsibilities linked to how they apply their knowledge and judgements.
• CA15 - Know and be able to apply in practice the organisational, management and commercial aspects of the legal profession, as well as company, tax and employment law and legislation on the protection of personal data.
• CA05 - Know and be able to apply professional ethical rights and duties in the lawyer’s dealings with clients, third parties, courts, public authorities and other lawyers.
• CA06 - - Know and assess the different responsibilities associated with professional practice, including the basic principles of offering free legal assistance and promoting the social responsibilities of the lawyer.
• CA07 - Know how to identify conflicts of interest and know the techniques used to resolve them, establishing the scope of professional confidentiality and upholding independent judgement criteria.

At the end of the module, the student will know, firstly, and in terms of legal ethics, to solve any case, question or problem of a deontological type that arises, applying correctly the regulations and also know the institutional and procedural mechanisms suitable for the treatment of deontological incidents.

As far as the organization of the profession is concerned, the student will know the bases of contemporary legal marketing, will have improved in the use of the main software programs as well as in the management of the programs of management of office, and will be able to manage properly the basic administrative and economic aspects of a legal study.

Regarding the Professional Deontology, the following are collected:

As regards the Organization of the profession, the following are collected:

(i) Legal Marketing.

(ii) Applied office automation and management of dispatch management programs.

(iii) Administrative and economic management of legal firms.

The University Master's Degree in Abogacía bases its methodology on the "case method" that consists of studying the real assumptions and problems that are dealt with in the offices. The students prepare and analyze the cases, identify the problems and, individually or in groups, once in class together with the teacher, look for solutions and make a common pool of possible alternatives to solve them.

With the case method we intend to help the student to acquire the main skills of a good lawyer, such as logical reasoning, ease of oral expression and mastery of language, among others.

The module on Professional Deontology consists of 3 ECTS of which 30 hours are teaching and 45 hours are a minimum that will be required of the student's work and from which it will be evaluated.

• Participation in class: Counts 60% of the final mark.
• Written exam consisting of a test and a practical case: The average score of both tests counts 40% of the final mark.

In relation to professional ethics, it is necessary, fundamentally, to have the current regulations and will provide the student with a full bibliographic review, part of which can be found in the UICbarcelona library. Likewise, the contents of Deontology of the editions held until the date of the State examination will be made available.

As regards Organization of the profession, in principle the student is not referred to a specific bibliography, receiving from the teacher the didactic resources that may be necessary.