Donald E. Campbell, Raise Your Right Hand And Swear To Be Civil: Defining Civility As An Obligation Of Professional Responsibility, 47 Gonz. L. Rev. 99 (Dec. 2011)
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Summary

Professor Campbell distinguishes ethics, professionalism, and civility as follows: “Ethics addresses minimal obligations placed on lawyers under rules of professional conduct. Professionalism is identified as a lawyer’s obligations to society as a whole, apart from a lawyer’s obligations to her client. Civility is identified as those obligations that lawyers owe to other lawyers, their clients, and the court generally.” Ethical standards impose duties on lawyers that if not followed can lead to sanctions or disbarment, and professional standards provide guidelines to assist lawyers in serving the public good and the profession itself. Civility standards, on the other hand, are meant to provide guidelines on how lawyers ought to conduct themselves in relation to the parties involved, to “ensure that the image of the legal process is preserved and respected by the public, and to ensure that disputes are resolved in a timely, efficient, and cooperative manner.”