Cultivating a Campus Culture of Civility

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Paula Lustbader, Cultivating a Campus Culture of Civility, Robert's Fund (2016)

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Summary

Incivility permeates our culture including in colleges and universities. Higher education influences each generation, engenders critical thinking, and establishes cultural norms for professionals. When we teach and model ways to facilitate robust, yet civil, discourse about controversial topics, we empower students to be constructive, civil, and engaged citizens in an increasingly polarized world. After offering a definition and framework for thinking about civility, the paper summarizes the pervasiveness and cost of incivility in our society generally and the presence and impact of incivility on schools specifically. The paper then provides suggestions on ways that higher education can cultivate a campus culture of civility.

The WSBA Civility Survey: Promoting the Civil Practice of Law

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Lisa E. Brodoff and Timothy M. Jaasko-Fisher, The WSBA Civility Survey: Promoting the Civil Practice of Law, NWLawyer (December 2016).
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Excerpt

How might we promote a practice of law that is both exceptionally effective and highly civil?  As members of the WSBA, we should all care about this question.  The effective practice of law is a cornerstone of our democracy and key to a thriving market economy.  Civility promotes justice and reduces transaction costs.  Incivility is expensive.  Nationally, it is well documented that incivility costs us in terms of our business, our health, and our ability to deliver on our legal system’s promise of “justice for all”.  But is it really a problem in our state?  And even if it is a problem, what can we do about it?  These were some of the fundamental questions we set out to answer when Robert’s Fund’s Civility Center for the Law, Seattle University School of Law, and the WSBA joined together in May of 2016 to survey WSBA member’s about civility in the profession.  

Igniting a Culture of Civility

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Paula Lustbader, Igniting a Culture of Civility, WASHINGTON STATE BAR NEWS (January 2011)
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Summary

Outlining the goals of Robert’s Fund, Professor Lustbader defines civility broadly and pinpoints its significance in the legal profession. Lustbader understands civility to be more than just politeness—rather, civility is “courage with kindness.” She reasons that because lawyers are influential policy makers, encounter possibilities for conflict in their daily professional practice, and serve as role models for many people and communities, working to foster civility within the legal profession can promote greater civility in society generally. According to Lustbader, civility benefits lawyers personally, strengthens their profession, helps build meaningful relationships with clients, increases client loyalty and client base, and leads to more successful outcomes.