CILEx lawyers become first to swear oath upon qualification
updated on 10 May 2012
Chartered legal executives have become the first UK legal professionals to recite an oath upon qualification. The news follows the Institute of Legal Executives being awarded a Royal Charter earlier this year to be renamed the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (CILEx), in recognition of the institute's commitment to providing the public with high-quality legal services.
As reported in Legal Futures, CILEx took the considered decision to introduce an oath as an approximate legal version of the Hippocratic oath, which holds medical professionals serving the public's more sensitive needs to an ethical standard. Internationally, many Bar associations and law societies require members to undertake similar vows, while in the United Kingdom judges and newly-appointed QCs must also swear an oath.
The oath was first sworn by newly-qualified chartered legal executives at CILEx's annual graduation ceremony in Bedford earlier this year, and is as follows: "I promise to discharge diligently my duties and responsibilities as a chartered legal executive. I will protect my independence as a lawyer, uphold the rule of law, and act at all times with integrity. I will justify the confidence and trust that is placed in me by my clients, the courts, the public and by my profession."
