For example, a law firm partner who fails to point out an error in a young lawyer’s brief isn’t being civil – that partner isn’t doing his or her job.Ĭivility is not the same as liking someone. Respect for the other person or party may in fact call for criticism. Professor Stephen Carter of Yale Law School has stated, in one of his many writings on civility, “ nation where everybody agrees is not a nation of civility but a nation without diversity, waiting to die.”Ĭivility is not the absence of criticism. The democratic process thrives on dialogue and dialogue requires disagreement. In fact, underlying the codes of civility is the assumption that people will disagree. The presence of civility does not mean the absence of disagreement. These are all myths.Ĭivility is not the same as agreement.

It may also be useful at the outset to dispense with some widely held misconceptions about civility, likening it to: (1) agreement, (2) the absence of criticism, (3) liking a person, and (4) good manners. So, civility is a behavioral code of decency or respect that is the hallmark of living as citizens in the same state. Some writers equate civility with respect. The early Greeks thought that civility was both a private virtue and a public necessity, which functioned to hold the state together. The French and Latin etymologies of the word suggest, roughly, “relating to citizens.” In its earliest use, the term referred to exhibiting good behavior for the good of a community. To fulfill these overarching and overlapping roles, lawyers must make civility their professional standard and ideal. Not only do lawyers serve as representatives of their clients, they serve as officers of the legal system and public citizens having special responsibility for the quality of justice. As the guardians of the Rule of Law that defines the American social and political fabric, lawyers should embody civility in all they do. Civil behavior is a core element of attorney professionalism.

Rules of civility