Legal Education and Civility
/Excerpts from the Article
By Dean Mark C. Niles
It is critically important that faculty and staff create this positive atmosphere in law school because of the important role that students play in their own education and that of their colleagues. Students learn at least as much from each other as they learn from their law professors during their three years. And much of what is most important to civility in the profession — cooperation, courtesy, consensus-building, and respect for others — is learned (or not) outside faculty classes and office hours.
About the Author
Mark C. Niles is dean of Seattle University School of Law. He was the associate dean at American University Washington College of Law, and has taught civil procedure, administrative law, constitutional law, governmental liability, and law and literature. Earlier in his career, he served as a clerk for the Hon. Francis Murnaghan Jr., of the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. He was an associate at the D.C. firm of Hogan and Hartson, and an attorney on the civil appellate staff of the U.S. Department of Justice.