ABSTRACT This article examines whether the concept of ‘professionalism’ as applied to the legal profession serves any useful guide as to how lawyers should act. Professionalism is defined in terms of civility for the purposes of this article and considered against the backdrop of a perceived ‘decline’ in professionalism in the legal profession. Arguably, professionalism is all too often subsumed under the heading of ethics in both common parlance and in course content in law schools where Ethics, Professional Responsibility are part of the curriculum with little weight given to professionalism per se. This article reflects, in part, on the student perception as to the state of the profession garnered from their responses to an assessment task at an Australian university. The issue is ripe for further discussion given that in Australia, the Law Admissions Consultative Committee has queried whether the teaching of Ethics (and therefore Professionalism) should be withdrawn from the core curriculum. The article queries if there is in fact a ‘decline’ in standards and civility and, if so, considers the potential to arrest this ‘decline’ by the profession, universities and students working together to revive ‘professionalism’.

中文翻译：

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对“专业主义”和法律实践的反思——一种过时的意识形态还是一种有用的分析类别？

摘要 本文考察了“专业主义”的概念是否适用于法律职业，是否可以为律师应该如何行事提供任何有用的指导。出于本文的目的，专业精神是根据礼貌来定义的，并且是在法律职业专业精神“下降”的背景下考虑的。可以说，职业精神在普通用语和法学院的课程内容中经常被归入道德的标题下，其中道德，职业责任是课程的一部分，很少重视职业精神本身。本文部分反映了学生对澳大利亚大学评估任务的反应所获得的对职业状况的看法。鉴于在澳大利亚，这个问题已经成熟，可以进一步讨论 法律招生咨询委员会质疑是否应该从核心课程中撤回道德（以及专业精神）的教学。文章质疑标准和文明是否真的“下降”，如果是，则考虑通过专业、大学和学生共同努力来恢复“专业主义”来阻止这种“下降”的可能性。