NEW RULES IN 2019
Civility Rules Continued collaborated to draft the initial Code into a single document entitled, “Attorney involved in the process. ABTL perceived of Conduct in an effort to highlight Civility and Practice Guidelines.” Both that perhaps the professionalism that the importance of maintaining civility, efforts again involved a collaboration of should be expected of lawyers was integrity and professionalism. Providing the bench and the bar. falling again, whether due to issues that such guidelines was also arose from longer litigation consistent with what other due to court funding To review the Attorney Civility and Practice jurisdictions were doing at the issues, the increasing use Guidelines on the SDCBA website, visit: time, and the SDCBA believed — and sometimes abuse that it was a good idea to — of electronic means of www.sdcba.org/codeofconduct be among the number who communication, or other adopted them. The Daniel T. reasons. Broderick III Award arose out For more Legal Ethics content visit: The SDCBA jumped at of the creation of the Code tackling this challenge. of Conduct to keep the legal www.sdcba.org/legalethics The Civility, Integrity community focused on civility; and Professionalism leaders of the legal community The SDCBA Legal Ethics Committee also Committee had recently wanted to make sure that been folded into the Legal publishes articles related to ethical practice civility was not viewed as just Ethics Committee. So, the bi-weekly in This Week at the Bar. the focus of the moment. Legal Ethics Committee The Code of Conduct has now twice been revised, first in 2008, which included the addition of 50 tips from the bench, which evolved into the SDCBA Guidelines for Effective and Professional Advocacy, and most recently this year, which resulted in a melding of the Code and the Guidelines documents
The most recent revisions began fairly simply. The Association of Business Trial Lawyers approached SDCBA about revising the civility guidelines with the goal of getting as many organizations in the community as possible to be
was tasked with revising the Code of Conduct and Guidelines for Effective and Professional Advocacy. The LEC formed a subcommittee that worked with ABTL and the Superior Court bench to address an initial draft of proposed guidelines that largely retained the same form as the
Won't You Be My Civil Neighbor? By George Brewster Jr.
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ivility. In the practice of law, we know — we SHOULD know — what that means. What it entails, and the consequences for any uncivil behavior. But do we behave civilly in real life? Should we apply our rules of professional conduct to our private associations/ encounters? The San Diego County Bar Association has an Attorney Code of Conduct. Just altering the words a bit (say, duties owed to your neighbor rather than to the court, etc.), here are some rules of conduct that might be useful for our personal contacts and maybe even impersonal (i.e. social media) discussions: Neighbors should always be courteous and respectful to each other. Neighbors should always be candid with each other.
28 SAN DIEGO LAWYER January/February 2019
Neighbors should attempt to resolve, by agreement, their differences relating to neighborhood matters. Treat neighbors who hold adverse opinions with common courtesy, good attitude, good manners, fairness and due consideration. When asking a neighbor about an issue, proceed as though a judicial officer were present. Neighbors should not arbitrarily or unreasonably withhold consent to a just and reasonable request for cooperation or accommodation. Do not attribute to a neighbor a position not clearly taken by that neighbor. Neighbors should conduct themselves so that they may conclude each matter with a handshake.
I can’t say that our national discourse is any worse than it was when the camps supporting Jefferson or Adams went after each other. But what is greatly different is that the uncivil commentary goes viral in an instant. Lawyers are leaders in the community. We have the training to argue points without calling people names. Let us lead by example. Just my humble opinion. Please don’t unfriend me on Facebook. George Brewster Jr. (sandsbrew@aol.com) is a retired attorney after 35 years of practice, including JAG, private practice and the last 30 with the County of San Diego, Office of County Counsel.