What is professional ethics?

The meaning: the profession's moral code — the standards of right conduct for those who practise the learned professions (the "professional" + the "ethics": the occupation trusted by society, and the rules that justify that trust). Professional ethics is wider than personal morality: it is the public, enforceable, role-defined morality of the licensed practitioner. The nature (three faces): Aspirational — the ideals pursued (excellence, honour, service): the "ought" beyond the "must"; Normative — the rules prescribed (the codes of conduct, the disciplinary floor): the minimum enforceable below which the licence is at stake; Practical — the daily dilemmas (the conflict of duties: client vs court, zeal vs truth, loyalty vs law): ethics as lived judgment, not decorated principle. The special position of the legal profession: law is a monopoly profession (entry licensed, the public dependent); the lawyer's licence is a public trust — privilege given, duties owed in return. That reciprocity is the core of legal ethics: the more the profession is trusted with power (over liberty, property, reputation), the heavier its self-restraint must be.