Whose Ethics?

A recent survey of workplace culture in 15 Australian law firms found “strong differences ” between junior and senior lawyers ’ perceptions of ethics support within their firms and perceptions of their own capacity to raise ethical issues (Parker and Aitken 2011, 402). Among junior lawyers, only 44 % said that they are always “able to raise ethical issues in confidence, ” compared to 75 % of se-nior lawyers (441). Junior lawyers were also less likely to know where to turn for ethical advice, and to report that their ethical concerns are given consid-eration in the firm. Among junior lawyers, less than 40 % said that their ethi-cal concerns are always given consideration, compared to nearly 80 % of senior lawyers (441). David Chambers also found significant differences between junior and senior lawyers in his analysis of data from the University of Michigan Law School alumni survey (Mather and Levin, chapter 1). Among law graduates surveyed five years after graduation, only 51 % agreed that “the lawyers with whom I deal... are highly ethical, ” compared to 63 % of those surveyed 35 o