ABSTRACT
Many cases dealt with by lawyers concern what seems to be a field of tension between a generally held interest and the interests of the client. This raises the question as to how lawyers should behave when they are positioned in this field of tension? This chapter seeks to answer this question, using material obtained from interviews with 80 lawyers, held as part of a research project to gain insights into changing ethics in the legal profession. The chapter deals with the function and content of the professional code of ethics applicable to lawyers as this has evolved. The interviews posed various questions which placed the respondents precisely in this field of tension between society and client. The foregoing sketches the professional code of ethics of lawyers. It could well be expected that the code incorporates the responsibility of the lawyer with respect to the legal system and to society at large.
