ICAGI runs a course on professional ethics and civil liability for lawyers from 26 November to 3 December

The Gipuzkoa Bar Association (ICAGI) has scheduled a course on professional ethics and civil liability for lawyers, to be taught in Donostia between 26 November and 3 December 2026, from 16:00 to 19:00. Registration remains open until 25 November.

The course is in-person and will take place at the bar association's headquarters (Duque de Mandas 11, Donostia), in Spanish. According to the course sheet published by the association, the programme addresses the two main fronts of a lawyer's professional exposure: the ethical regime that disciplines practice and civil liability for professional errors.

Why ethics and civil liability are worth reviewing now

The combination is not accidental. Disciplinary proceedings and civil liability claims share the same point of origin: the breach - real or perceived - of professional duties. Diligence, loyalty, conflicts of interest, professional secrecy and client communication are the points where both avenues of liability intersect, and where disputes concentrate most.

For the small firm and the sole practitioner, a civil liability claim is also a business continuity problem: the liability policy, the limits of cover and the correct handling of the claim make the difference between a scare and a crisis. And on the disciplinary side, daily practice - client acquisition, advertising, advance payments - moves within an ethical framework whose breach can end in proceedings.

What a serious review of this subject usually covers

Although the association publishes the detailed programme on its course sheet, a course with this title typically works through the provisions of the Spanish Code of Legal Ethics and the General Statute that generate the most conflicts (conflicts of interest, client acquisition, advertising, fees and advance payments), the relationship between a disciplinary complaint and a subsequent civil claim, and the case-law criteria on the required standard of diligence and burden of proof in a lawyer's professional liability. It is also common to review the interaction with professional indemnity insurance: duties of disclosure, cover, exclusions and claims handling.

A format compatible with practice

The two-afternoon in-person format makes it possible to combine the course with ordinary professional activity, something bar associations have been taking care of in their autumn training offer. The central Donostia venue makes attendance easier for Gipuzkoa members and those nearby.

Interested lawyers can register until 25 November through the ICAGI training page, which publishes the full course sheet with dates, schedule and conditions.

More training in our agenda

For younger lawyers, this kind of course serves a function that goes beyond the syllabus: ordering from the start of a career the duties that structure the client relationship. A good share of civil liability claims does not arise from sophisticated legal errors, but from failures of communication, badly managed deadlines or conflicts of interest not detected in time. Training on those scenarios with concrete cases is, in the long run, the best insurance policy.

The bar associations' autumn training offer is broad. In our training section we have covered other recent proposals, such as the Spanish legal profession's digital justice course, the autumn course offer for lawyers and the training actions linked to the legal aid duty roster and the ICAV-ICAS access routes. For those weighing up the access master's, we keep our guide on how to choose the access-to-practice master's degree up to date.