Lowering the Bar:
Rude lawyers besmirching the profession, some say

By Kathleen Burge, Globe Staff, 3/26/2002

- Read Alex Sugerman-Brozan's response

They hurl bagels and books and cellphones. They cuss like harried commuters and dish like Don Imus. Snarled one of them: ''Get your foul, odious body on the other side of the table.''

They are the attorneys who inspire bloodthirsty lawyer jokes, the ones called ''SOB lawyers'' by one Massachusetts judge. Another judge sadly suggests that courtroom life is beginning to imitate scenes from the Boston-based television drama ''The Practice,'' with its ranting, shouting attorneys.

Though uncivil lawyers are a small fraction of those who practice law, their actions are troubling to many. A task force of the Boston Bar Association is searching for ways to rein in bad behavior, which many say is increasing. Some judges have begun punishing offending lawyers by fining them or ordering them to pay their adversaries' fees - and, in rare rulings, by dismissing their cases.

''It's important because it lowers the dignity of the profession and it makes the profession unpleasant,'' said Nicholas Nesgos, a commercial litigator. ''It perpetrates a negative image about lawyers.''

Lawyers and judges have blamed myriad culprits for the rampancy of rude behavior. Some say younger lawyers are less inclined to be civil to their colleagues. Some say the explosion of the lawyer population in the Boston area has made the bar less clubby and more anonymous. And some point to the bad manners creeping through all segments of society.

''I love this practice of law ...,'' said Superior Court Judge Carol Ball at a recent Boston Bar conference. ''And I really fear that this growing problem of incivility is doing great damage to the soul of this great profession.''

In November 2000, Superior Court Judge Margot Botsford ordered lawyers for Purity Supreme Inc., which was sued by a woman who said she slipped on a pudding-like substance in a store and hurt her back, to pay $2,000 to the woman's lawyer.

The lawyers for the supermarket chain, Botsford said, had written a letter to a witness for the woman that seemed ''clearly designed to drive a wedge'' between the two. The letter, she said, was ''outrageous.''

Superior Court Judge Peter Lauriat has also cracked down on lawyer incivility. He is especially vigilant toward misbehavior at depositions, which are conducted outside the courtroom, far from a judge's watchful eye.

Several times, Lauriat has threatened to fine lawyers $5 for each word they utter after opposing counsel makes an objection during a deposition, or $100 each time they improperly instruct clients not to answer a question.

He finds that the mere threat of the fine is usually sufficient. Once, he threw out a case when the plaintiffs and their lawyers repeatedly refused to answer the other side's questions.

''There is a line between zealous advocacy and this kind of conduct which needs to be drawn,'' said Lauriat, who is cochairman of the Boston Bar task force. At a panel discussion the group sponsored last month, Lauriat reported another example, this one out-of-state, in which one lawyer told another, ''You could gag a maggot off a meat wagon.''

Judges like Lauriat still use a 1995 case involving Andover lawyer Barbara Johnson to illustrate egregious behavior. During a deposition, Johnson called the defendant a vulgarity and ''Bozo the Clown.'' ''You're the slimiest thing I have come across,'' she said.

''It's true, I probably did say that,'' Johnson said last week. ''Anger is appropriate. Words are sometimes appropriate when the man was a piece of slime acting in a slimy way.''

When she made the offending statements, Johnson, who says she plans to run for governor, was representing her mother, then in her 80s. Johnson was suing another lawyer she felt was trying to take advantage of her mother.
Superior Court Judge James McHugh ordered Johnson to pay three-fourths of the deposition cost, and noted that it was probably unwise for Johnson to represent her mother.

''I'm a troublemaker,'' Johnson said last week. ''I'm outspoken. My whole being is politically incorrect. I was easy prey.'' She also wonders why it's all right for judges and others to refer to ''SOB lawyers'' but wrong for her to use the actual words the acronym stands for.

Michael Keating, president of the Boston Bar Association, has made lawyer incivility one of his causes during his term. He worries that the problem not only makes life difficult for attorneys, but could discourage others from practicing law. In his classes at Northeastern Law School, he tries to disabuse his students of the notion that good lawyers have to be rude.

''I tell my students that the best lawyers I know are the lawyers who treat other people with the most civility,'' he said.

The problem reaches beyond lawyers calling each other names, he said. Some lawyers flood their adversaries with unnecessary paperwork, or don't show up for depositions, or are unwilling to offer simple courtesies, like extending a deadline.

''Incivility doesn't have to mean raised voices,'' agrees Edward P. Ryan Jr., past president of the Massachusetts Bar Association. For instance, he said, an opposing lawyer recently filed 120 interrogatories, a series of questions designed to elicit information in a lawsuit. The rules limit the number to 30.

''We actually had to go to court and ask a judge to stop her,'' he said.

Kathleen Burge can be reached at

This story ran on page B1 of the Boston Globe on 3/26/2002.
© Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.
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Response: Letters to the Editor, Boston Globe, 3/28/02

"Lawyers: Guilty of Being Rude"

Having just returned from a symposium with 36 Boston-area lawyers on how contemplative practices like yoga and meditation can benefit the legqal profession, I found it serendipitous to read of the effect of rudeness and incivility among lawyers ("Lowering the bar," City & Region, March 26).

Although rude behavior is not the norm, it is also not aberrant. Rather, it is the extreme expression of the way law is practiced and taught. Law schools by and large teach students to value competition and confrontation.

The macho work ethic of the bar leaves lawyers overworked and exhausted, with nerves frayed and patience spent. If we want to address the bad apples who their behavior to the extreme, we must address the ills that pervade the whole barrel. Perhaps a little meditation plus more balanced work lives, reforms in legal education and an enhanced emphasis on collaborative approaches are things all lawyers could use.

Alex Sugerman-Brozan, Boston

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