Civility as the Core of Professionalism

Civil behavior is a core element of attorney professionalism. As the guardians of the Rule of Law that defines the American social and political fabric, lawyers should embody civility in all they do. 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. To fulfill these overarching and overlapping roles, lawyers must make civility their professional standard and ideal. 
What Exactly Is “Civility”?
The concept of civility is broad. 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. The early Greeks thought that civility was both a private virtue and a public necessity, which functioned to hold the state together. Some writers equate civility with respect. So, civility is a behavioral code of decency or respect that is the hallmark of living as citizens in the same state. 
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. These are all myths. 
Civility is not the same as agreement. The presence of civility does not mean the absence of disagreement. In fact, underlying the codes of civility is the assumption that people will disagree. The democratic process thrives on dialogue and dialogue requires disagreement. Professor Stephen Carter of Yale Law School has stated, in one of his many writings on civility, “[a] nation where everybody agrees is not a nation of civility but a nation without diversity, waiting to die.” 
Civility is not the absence of criticism. Respect for the other person or party may in fact call for criticism. 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. 
Civility is not the same as liking someone. It is a myth that civility is more possible in small communities where everyone knows each other. Knowing or liking the other person is not a prerequisite for civility. Civility compels us to show respect even for strangers who may be sharing our space, whether in the public square, in the office, in the courtroom, or in cyberspace. 
Civility should not be equated with politeness or manners alone. Although impoliteness is almost always uncivil, good manners alone are not a mark of civility. Politely refusing to serve someone at a lunch counter on the basis of skin color, or cordially informing a law graduate that the firm does not hire women, is not civil behavior. 
Civility is a code of decency that characterizes a civilized society. But how is that code reflected in the practice of law? 
Civil Conduct is a Condition of Lawyer Licensing
A civility imperative permeates bar admission standards. The legal profession is largely self-governing, with ultimate authority over the profession resting with the courts in nearly all states. Courts typically set the standards for who becomes admitted to practice in a state and prescribe the ethical obligations that lawyers are bound, by their oath, to fulfill. 
Candidates for bar admission in every state must satisfy the board of bar admissions that they are of good moral character and general fitness to practice law. The state licensing authority’s committee on character and fitness will recommend admission only where the applicant’s record demonstrates that he or she meets basic eligibility requirements for the practice of law and justifies the trust of clients, adversaries, courts, and others with respect to the professional duties owed to them. Those eligibility requirements typically require applicants to demonstrate exemplary conduct that reflects well on the profession. 
Capacity to act in a manner that engenders respect for the law and the profession – in other words, civility – is a requirement for receiving a law license and, in some jurisdictions, for retaining the privilege of practicing law. It follows that aspiring and practicing lawyers should be disabused of the notion that effective representation ever requires or justifies incivility. 
Beyond Client Representation: Lawyer as Public Citizen
Notions of a lawyer’s core civility duty also are rooted in ethical principles informing and defining the practice of law. Those principles, having evolved over the centuries to lend moral structure and a higher purpose to a life in the law today, speak plainly to a lawyer’s dual duties as officer of the legal system and public citizen, beyond the role client advocate. At the very top of the lawyer’s code of ethics – in the Preamble to the Model Rules of Professional Conduct – we read of those larger civic duties binding every practicing lawyer. 
Civility concepts suffuse the hortatory language of the Preamble. For example, the Preamble makes clear that even in client dealings, counsel is expected to show respect for the legal system in his or her role as advisor, negotiator, or evaluato