Attorney incivility is nothing new. Noting that the problem dated to the nineteenth century, Chief Justice Warren Burger addressed it in 1971 remarks to the American Law Institute. He criticized the lawyer who equated zealous advocacy with “how loud he can shout or how close he can come to insulting all those he encounters.” (“The Necessity for Civility,” 52 FRD 211, 213 (1971))
Here’s a more recent example from a deposition, cited in Judge Marvin E. Aspen’s oft-quoted 1998 article on the erosion of civility:
Mr. V: Please don’t throw it at me.
Mr. A: Take it.
Mr. V: Don’t throw it at me.
Mr. A: Don’t be a child, [Mr. V]. You look like a slob the way you’re dressed, but you don’t have to act like a slob….
Mr. V: Stop yelling at me. Let’s get on with it.
Mr. A: You deny I have given you a copy of every document?
Mr. V: You just refused to give it to me.
Mr. A: Do you deny it?
Mr. V: Eventually you threw it at me.
Mr. A: Oh, [Mr. V], you’re about as childish as you can get. You look like a slob, you act like a slob.
Mr. V: Keep it up.
Mr. A: Your mind belongs in the gutter.
Evidence of incivility among adversaries is largely anecdotal; the best examples don’t lend themselves to statistical analysis. A recent Above the Law post led me to ponder this question: does the prevailing big law business model contribute to incivility?
Mark Herrmann, a former big law partner, writes “Inside Straight” from his relatively new vantage point as in-house counsel. “How to Be a Crappy Partner” isn’t about civility, but some of his readers’ comments led me to this observation: when lawyers inside a law firm treat each other poorly, no one should expect their behavior to improve for outside opponents.
Unpleasant personalities are everywhere. Big firm lawyers as a group may be no worse than those in other practice settings; jerks exist across the spectrum. Likewise, drawing conclusions from any potpourri of Above the Law comments is dangerous. Even so, the most coherent “Crappy Partner” reactions fall into the following categories, each of which has a counterpart in external incivility:
— Disrespect for People’s Time
“Give me 10 minutes as an associate in a world without Blackberrys–please.” Other examples: delaying assignments until they conflict with an associate’s long-planned (and widely known) vacation; imposing tight deadlines only to let the completed work sit undisturbed on the assigning partner’s desk for two weeks; Friday night forwarding of a client’s earlier request for answers by the following Monday with a message revealing that the partner sat on the client’s request for five days.
Incivility counterpart: Fighting over inconsequential scheduling matters; taking actions, such as so-called emergency motions, solely to disrupt opponents’ personal lives.
— Flagrant Misbehavior
“Believe it or not, I’m on your side.” Examples: partners who yell, scream, and act in ways that most parents wouldn’t tolerate from a two-year-old; verbal abuse; sexist comments; narcissism.
Incivility counterpart: Ad hominem attacks.
— Lack of Candor About the Big Law Model
“I’m smart; that’s why you hired me. I can do the math.” Examples: pretending that associates don’t notice as fewer than ten percent of earlier new hires advance to equity partner after years of 2,000+ billables; bragging about the firm’s tenth year of increasing partner profits while laying off associates and staff; giving lip-service to mentoring and professional development when short-term profits drive decisions based on metrics that exclude such considerations.
Incivility counterpart: Lawyers believing their own press releases–and acting the role.
Send the purveyors (and victims) of such hubris into the world and what do you expect? More than most occupations, lawyers learn from role models and mentors. The culture that undermines morale at many large firms isn’t self-limiting. The prevailing business model often rewards “crappy partner” behavior and rarely penalizes it. External incivility is one byproduct of that internal ethos.
Large firms aren’t solely to blame for incivility; far from it. But for good and ill, they exert vastly disproportionate influence over the profession. Among other failings, the prevailing big law business model isn’t helping the cause of civility. Tellingly, here’s one commenter’s sad advice on how to avoid becoming a crappy partner:
“Please say please and thank you.”
I wonder what their mothers would say.
The Belly of the Beast 
You’re right about the internal/external behavior alignment. Years ago, my brother was a customer service consultant at (then) Price Waterhouse. It was axiomatic that one could not be two people, i.e., however one behaved with internal clients, that was how one behaved with external ones.
After 20 years coaching BigLaw lawyers, virtually all of whom treated me respectfully and graciously, I still can’t deny that punctuality was almost completely absent. When a lawyer joins a conference call on time or calls me at the appointed time, I can’t resist chiding them that if their punctuality becomes widely known, they’re in danger of getting kicked out of the Lawyer Club. I find this ironic in a time-based culture where time is, literally, money.
I think part of it is when you are in a big environment, you never expect to see the other side (or faceless associate #24) much after the case is over, so you have no reason (other than professional courtesy) to be nice.
I’m in a large firm in a practice area where 90 percent of the practitioners are all here. (I’m in DC.) We’re generally pretty nice to each other. Sure, there are testy moments, but I know I’m going to see the other side again and again and again (and they will see me), so generally, we act politely to one another. My sense is that the general litigators, who practice nationally, have a low percentage of ever seeing the other side again and aren’t concerned about how behavior will impact the next case because there won’t be a next case.