All lawyers obliged to abide by certain basic ethical standards: expert

All lawyers must abide by certain basic ethical standards, a law expert in New York told Xinhua Tuesday in an interview, on the recent news of some lawyers arrested in China.

Chinese police have recently arrested a group of lawyers suspected of disrupting public order and seeking profits by illegally hiring protesters and swaying court decisions.

Legal experts and an official from China's judicial organs have defended the police detention of lawyers from the Beijing's Fengrui Law Firm, saying it is "good for the general legal practice environment."

But the move has caused criticism from some Western media, which claim it is a step back for the rule of law.

Hu Mo, a senior lawyer in New York, told Xinhua that in the United States, a lawyer's obligation is to maintain the highest standards of ethical conduct, and anyone who violates state disciplinary rules will be served with charges.

"Lawyers are deemed to be officers of the court in America, as well as guardians of the law, who play a vital role in the preservation of society," he said.

"The underlying premise of a free and democratic society depends upon recognition of the concept that justice is based upon the rule of law, in the protection of individual rights, respect for law and the judicial system, and lawyers are to be held to a high standard of professionalism," he stressed.

He said the conduct of the Beijing Fengrui Law Firm of hiring protesters to generate publicity and to influence judicial process will be sanctionable under U.S. attorney disciplinary rules.

He gave an example that under the New York State Lawyers Code of Professional Responsibility, there are broad standards of professional conduct expected of lawyers in their relationships with the public, with the legal system, and with the legal profession, which would have been violated by the Fengrui Law Firm and its attorneys.

The lawyers' violations of the rules or obligations may form the substantive basis for misconduct charges and can result in discipline, he pointed out.

The state bar disciplinary authority has the power to sanction lawyers with disbarment, suspension, censure, reprimand, admonishment, as well as other disciplines, including further education in legal ethics, practice subject to another lawyer's oversight and other appropriate remedies, Hu said.

In the United States, each court, state or federal, or administrative tribunal, is vested with inherent authority to control attorney's conduct, as well as pursuant to rules and statues.

Besides, the court also has the power to sanction attorneys for culpable acts committed outside the practice of law, he said.

For example, lawyers have been sanctioned for fabricating stories told to police, failure to file income tax returns, filing false insurance claims, drunk driving, or failure to disclose criminal misconduct in bar application, he added. Endi