Professor David Grenardo has published a timely new article examining the role of civility in today’s legal profession. Amid declining social cohesion, heightened political tensions, growing mental health strain, and a constant stream of negative news, uncivil behavior has become an increasingly visible challenge. In such an environment, it is easy to become discouraged and to question how to respond to attacks on human dignity and professional decorum.

In this article, Professor Grenardo argues that the answer lies in a renewed commitment to civility itself, rather than resorting to escalation or retreat. He explores what incivility looks like in practice, engages with existing scholarship that critiques civility, and analyzes the tension between the First Amendment and efforts to uphold civility within the legal profession. The article offers a thoughtful framework for responding to incivility with principled, deliberate, and sustained civility.

The abstract of the article follows below.

Civility faces attacks on several fronts. First, civil conduct in society continues to erode. Incivility appears to be increasing in the workplace, and incivility also remains prevalent in the legal profession. Second, legal scholarship has set its sights on attacking civility, calling civility in the legal profession oppressive and racist. Third, the First Amendment has been weaponized to attack civility rules and norms in the legal profession. How should supporters and believers in civility respond to these attacks? The answer is with civility.

This Article argues that the various attacks on civility require a response embedded in civility. When incivility continues to ravage the legal profession, mandatory civility remains the answer. When legal scholarship attacks civility, the response needed includes a thoughtful, respectful, and civil retort. And when the First Amendment clashes with civility in the form of personal insults and attacks against individuals, civility should tend to prevail.

Part I of this Article provides an overview of incivility in the workplace, the legal profession, and society, and discusses the necessary response in the legal profession, mandatory civility. Part II discusses and responds to scholarship that directly attacks civility in the legal profession. Part III examines the intersection of the First Amendment and the regulation of lawyer speech. This Article concludes that as attacks on civility continue to mount, responding with civility remains the best solution.

You can read the full article on SSRN here.