Douglas Lang Writes on Value of Civility for Texas Lawyer

Former Justice Douglas Lang, now senior counsel at Thompson Coburn, wrote a new commentary published in Texas Lawyer that highlights the importance of civility in the legal profession and society at large.

Justice Lang, who previously served on the Fifth District Court of Appeals in Dallas, pointed to the recent case Clapper v. American Realty Investors as an example of a court laying down the law about its intolerance for incivility. He noted the court concluded that comments from counsel and arguments identified in the opinion, “unquestionably tarnish[ed] the badge of evenhandedness and fairness that normally marks our system of justice” and declared that “zealous advocacy must not be obtained at the expense of incivility.’”

Referencing remarks by Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy on the importance of maintaining civility, Justice Lang wrote that “respect is the key to civility. Respect for others does not require one to be subservient to uncivil conduct. One must hold one’s own, but uncivil conduct must not be met with retaliatory, tit-for-tat incivility. That is unproductive and downright ignorant.”

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