THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 19, 1995 TAG: 9503180245
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BLOOMBERG BUSINESS NEWS
DATELINE: WILMINGTON, DEL. LENGTH: Medium: 91 lines
Miss Manners would not be amused.
When Texas trial lawyer Joe Jamail lost his patience during a deposition in the Paramount Communications Inc. takeover battle not long ago, he lambasted the opposing attorney for what he viewed as delay tactics.
``I'm tired of you,'' Jamail barked. ``You could scare a maggot off a meat wagon.''
The volatile Jamail, who once slammed an attorney up against a courthouse wall, didn't stop there. He berated the younger lawyer throughout the three-hour session, ordering him to ``shut up'' and badgering him with foul language.
The tirade earned Jamail the distinction of being barred from courts in Delaware, where the victim of his tongue-lashing practiced. It also has made him a poster boy of sorts for an affliction that many say is driving the already battered reputation of lawyers further south - rudeness.
Some lawyers are trying to do something about it. State bar associations and courts in at least 30 states in recent years have enacted so-called civility codes aimed at curbing sharp tongues and hardball tactics. The American Bar Association, the nation's largest legal organization, is working on a similar project.
The codes, or creeds as they are sometimes called, have no teeth. Instead, they merely set guidelines for lawyer behavior. Among the suggestions to New York lawyers in a report released by the New York State Bar Association earlier this month: ``Never lie''; ``Say `thank you' ''; ``Demean no one''; and ``Make no promises to anyone that cannot be kept.''
If that sounds like a kindergarten primer on the Golden Rule, there is good reason.
``The heart of our public relations problem is that lawyers are trained very well in the law and not at all in personal relationships,'' said Douglas O'Brien, a member of the New York State Bar task force that wrote the report.
Already, the consciousness-raising has had tangible effects for the high and mighty as well as the rank and file.
Take the downfall of Delaware Supreme Court Justice Andrew Moore, one the nation's most influential and respected judges on corporate law. He lost his job last year after 12 years on the bench because of what the governor called ``a lack of civility.''
Moore was known as ``the hammer'' because of his haughty and sometimes caustic treatment of lawyers. The state's judicial nominating panel vetoed Moore's renomination, the first time that's happened to a sitting Delaware judge in more than 60 years.
Image problems are nothing new for lawyers, of course. It was more than two centuries ago that Samuel Johnson opined, ``I do not care to speak ill of any man behind his back, but I believe the gentleman is an attorney.''
Lawyer-bashing has come into its own lately, however. Reebok ads imagine a ``perfect world'' as one without lawyers. A Miller Lite beer ad last year depicted fat and terrified tax lawyers being lassoed and hogtied at a rodeo.
When Harvey Saferstein called during his tenure as California state bar president for a halt to such attacks on lawyers, he was harassed with so many threatening phone calls and letters that he posted a guard outside his office door.
Harvard Law School Professor Mary Anne Glendon said the popular media has played a big role in stoking the public's negative view of lawyers by creating the image of the ``Rambo'' litigator.
``Litigators make up less than 15 percent of the profession, but the public, and many attorneys, have come to think of the lawyer as an aggressive, no-holds-barred adversary,'' said Glendon, author of the recently published book ``A Nation Under Lawyers.''
Gavel-to-gavel coverage of the O.J. Simpson murder trial seems unlikely to dispel that notion.
Earlier this month, for instance, chief prosecutor Marcia Clark said she could not stay late for a proposed evening session because she needed to be with her daughter. Defense attorney Johnnie Cochran Jr. later shot back that Clark may have used child care as a ruse to delay the testimony of a key defense witness.
Clark replied that she was ``offended as a woman, as a single parent, as a prosecutor and as an officer of the court.''
No apology was forthcoming from Cochran, however. And that's not surprising to some observers who are skeptical about whether the average lawyer can ever play the role of teddy bear.
Take the ABA's new president, Detroit lawyer George Bushnell. Last month he referred to some Republican members of Congress as ``reptilian bastards'' and called Simpson trial judge Lance Ito ``a horse's ass.'' The remarks were carried widely in the media and prompted 82 House members to sign a letter calling for Bushnell's resignation.
``If that's the way we are trying to win friends, we may be in trouble,'' said Harry Hathaway, a partner in Fulbright & Jaworski's Los Angeles office who until recently worked on the ABA's image-building campaign. by CNB