Dalhousie Law Journal Volume 30 Issue 1 Article 2 4-1-2007 Tending the Bar: The "Good Character" Requirement for Law Society Admission Alice Woolley University of Calgary Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.schulichlaw.dal.ca/dlj Part of the Legal Profession Commons Recommended Citation Alice Woolley, "Tending the Bar: The "Good Character" Requirement for Law Society Admission" (2007) 30:1 Dal LJ 27. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at Schulich Law Scholars. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dalhousie Law Journal by an authorized editor of Schulich Law Scholars. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Alice Woolley* Tending the Bar: The "Good Character" Requirement for Law Society Admission1 Every Canadian law society requires that applicants for bar admission be of "good character" The author assesses the administration of this requirement and its stated purposes of ensuring ethical conduct by lawyers, protecting the public and maintaining the profession's reputation. In particular, the premise underlying the use of the good character requirement to fulfill those purposes - that character is the "well-spring of professional conduct in lawyers" - is subjected to critical examination through the theoretical principles of Artistotelian virtue ethics and the empirical evidence of social psychology. The primary thesis of this paper is that as currently justified, administered and applied the good character requirement cannot be defended and must not be maintained. The secondary thesis of the paper, however, is that given the relationship.- albeit a qualified one - between character and ethical conduct, a reformed version of the good character requirement can, and arguably should, be maintained by the provincial law societies.