Civility Rules: Debunking the Major Myths Surrounding Mandatory Civility for Lawyers and Five Mandatory Civility Rules that will Work

Abstract

Civility remains a problem in the legal profession. Teaching law students about civility is critical, but it is not enough. Continuing legal education (CLE) programs on civility make for a fun hour, but they similarly fall short. Adding phrases about civility to the oaths lawyers take certainly does not hurt, but those oaths typically lack accountability. Calls for civility and calls to return to civility have become routine in the legal profession, yet they ring hollow because they do not lead to significant change. We are naı¨ve to hope that some lawyers will make substantial changes to their behavior in a profession riddled with systemic incivility just because others in the legal profession kindly ask them to do so. Instead, systemic change requires significantly altering the system-starting with mandating civility.

Keywords: civility, mandatory civility, incivility, legal profession, rules of professional conduct, professionalism, practice of law, disciplinary rules, oaths, professional identity formation, advocacy, professional responsibility, enforcing civility, historically underrepresented attorneys