Spare Me the Drama, You’re Not on TV
Rude, obstreperous, overbearing, and generally over-the-top lawyers may make for entertaining television, movies, or YouTube videos, but in real life, incivility in the practice of law can have serious negative consequences. A recent article appearing in HLRe: Off the Record, the online publication of the Houston Law Review, takes a look at civility in lawyering in general, and in Texas in particular. The author points out that incivility in lawyering can result in additional stress for attorneys, added costs in litigation and settlement negotiations, and a negative public perception of the profession. Incivility can also cause you to lose your case, and potentially face ostracism from your colleagues. The author suggests a number of ways to foster civility. These include adding civility to the wording of the state attorney oath, attending Inns of Court, providing transition to practice training through CLEs, teaching civility in law schools, and including civility as an essential eligibility requirement for the bar.
See David A. Grenardo, An Uprising of Civility in Texas, 5 HLRe: Off the Record 1(2014). [full text] We’ve blogged about civility a number of times in past posts, including in ones on the ABA Model Rule 1.3, brief writing, and the Golden Rule.
