Misconduct outside of legal practice

In brief

• Analyses what is meant by professional misconduct where allegations relate to ‘outside conduct’.

If my wife were a solicitor and she had murdered me during lockdown, and if (notwithstanding the many defences available to defence counsel) she had been convicted, I expect she would be struck off. That’s obvious, but is it right? If it is right, why is it right? Would it make any difference if the murderer was one of the saintly and long-suffering associates with whom I work? Suppose the murder was by defenestration from a penthouse during a purely social event?

For the purpose of this article, I use ‘outside conduct’ to mean conduct which is not part of the actual delivery of legal services. This might include inappropriate behaviour towards a colleague or fare dodging on public transport. In this first part, I’m going to look at the principles which are said to characterise outside conduct as professional misconduct. I will suggest