Duties to clients 

Once the paramount duty to the court is accounted for, the next layer of a lawyer's professional responsibility is the set of duties owed directly to the client. These duties give the lawyer–client relationship its practical content: they explain what a client is entitled to expect from their lawyer in the ordinary course of a retainer. They are real and enforceable obligations, but they are always exercised subject to — and can never be used to justify a breach of — the duty to the court.

Competence and diligence

A lawyer must act with competence and diligence in a client's matter — r 4.1.3 of the Australian Solicitors' Conduct Rules puts it as delivering legal services competently, diligently and as promptly as reasonably possible.¹ Competence requires the knowledge and skill reasonably necessary for the work undertaken, including recognising the limits of one's own expertise and, where appropriate, obtaining assistance or declining work that is genuinely beyond one's competence. Diligence requires timely attention to the matter: not letting a file languish, meeting deadlines, and progressing the client's matter without unreasonable delay. Failure in either respect is not simply poor client service; it is a breach of a professional duty, and can expose a lawyer to complaints, negligence liability, and disciplinary consequences.

Following lawful and proper instructions

A lawyer is generally required to act on the client's lawful and proper instructions, and a client is entitled to direct the significant decisions in their own matter — for example, whether to settle, what position to take on key issues, and whether to proceed with a claim at all. This duty has real limits. A lawyer is not obliged to, and must not, follow an instruction that would require unlawful conduct or a breach of the lawyer's duty to the court or other professional obligations. Where an instruction cannot properly be followed, the lawyer should explain why, rather than simply complying or simply refusing without explanation.

Keeping the client reasonably informed

A client cannot make informed decisions about their own matter without adequate information from their lawyer. The duty to keep a client reasonably informed covers matters such as the progress of the matter, the options reasonably available, the prospects and risks involved, and the costs likely to be incurred. This duty connects closely to a lawyer's obligations around costs disclosure and to the client's practical ability to exercise the choices that are properly theirs to make. A lawyer who keeps a client in the dark, even with good intentions, undermines the client's autonomy over their own matter.

Acting in the client's best interests

Underlying the more specific duties is the general obligation to act in the client's best interests. This is not simply a duty to do whatever the client asks; it requires the lawyer to bring independent professional judgement to the matter, to advise honestly even when the advice is unwelcome, and to avoid being distracted by the lawyer's own convenience or financial interest. Acting in a client's best interests can require giving advice the client does not want to hear — for example, that a claim is weak, that settlement is preferable to trial, or that a proposed course of action is unwise — because the client's genuine interests are not always the same as the client's immediate preferences.

How these duties relate to the paramount duty

None of these client-facing duties can be used to justify conduct that would breach the lawyer's paramount duty to the court. A client cannot instruct a lawyer to mislead a court, and a lawyer cannot describe a breach of that duty as merely following lawful instructions or acting in the client's best interests. The duties owed to clients operate within the space left by the paramount duty, not in competition with it. Understood this way, the framework is coherent rather than contradictory: a lawyer serves the client vigorously and loyally, but always as an officer of the court first.

Applying this in a problem question

1. Identify which specific client-facing duty is engaged — competence and diligence, following instructions, keeping the client informed, or acting in their best interests.
2. Check whether following the client's instruction would require the lawyer to compromise the duty to the court; if so, the instruction cannot properly be followed.
3. Distinguish a client's stated preference from the client's actual best interests, and be prepared to explain why independent professional judgement may point a different way.
4. Consider whether the client had enough information to make the decision in question, and if not, identify what should have been disclosed.
5. Where a lawyer has failed to meet a client-facing duty, identify the likely consequence — a complaint, a negligence claim, or a disciplinary outcome — rather than treating the breach as merely informal.