Resources

The Civility Center has created a resource bank of abstracts, essays, articles, and other media on civility from thoughtful leaders and eminent thinkers from across the country.

Resources & Articles

The Robert’s Fund Civility Center for the Law maintains a resource bank of abstracts, essays, articles, and other media on civility from thoughtful leaders and eminent thinkers from across the country.

March 16, 2015

Civility in the Courtroom: A Judge's Perspective

March 16, 2015/ Ricardo Ibarra

Senior Judge Gerald Hardcastle, Civility in the Courtroom: A Judge’s Perspective, 17 NEV. LAW. 6 (2009).

Summary

Judge Hardcastle argues that practicing civility serves the long-term interests of attorneys and clients. He notes that a top complaint is frustration with their colleagues’ lack of professionalism. Civility, Judge Hardcastle posits, can foster relationships of respect and appreciation among lawyers, thus improving overall satisfaction. Attorneys practicing civility in the courtroom create more positive relationships with judges and, as a result, are more successful for their clients. In this way, Judge Hardcastle says that “civility is good lawyering.”

March 16, 2015

True Civility Requires More Than Being Polite

March 16, 2015/ Ricardo Ibarra

Justice Steven González, True Civility Requires More Than Being Polite, Washington State Bar Ass’n (Sept. 2012)
View the full article.

Summary

Justice González states that “[c]ivility is a way of connecting and interacting with people; of engaging and thinking about what our relationships are with one another, and of discerning what we care about. . . . It is about how we communicate and how we persuade and convince, because that’s often what we’re doing in our profession. If we’ve alienated people from the outset, it can be much harder to do that and to be effective.”