CBA Record September 2018

PRESIDENT’S PAGE BY STEVEN M. ELROD Civility: The Bond of all Society

The Chicago Bar Association www.chicagobar.org

OFFICERS President Steven M. Elrod

profession and as members of an Asso- ciation, need to do everything we can to reverse the rise of incivility. There have been numerous studies on the negative impact of incivility in the workplace. I want to touch on some of those studies and their findings because they relate to the legal workplace whether you are working in the private (law firm), corporate, educational, judicial, or government sector. A study conducted by the National Institute of Health defined incivility as behavior that is characteristically rude and discourteous. NIH’s analyses found that there is a direct relationship between being uncivil and organizational change, job insecurity, low social support, lack of collaboration, and high job demands. The NIH study also found that incivil- ity was responsible for (i) decreased job satisfaction, (ii) impaired performance, (iii) dissatisfaction with the employer, (iv) increased turnover, (v) decreased respect for managers, (vi) feelings of injustice, (vii) lower productivity, and (viii) lost time. Several civility studies conducted by Christine Porath, have been featured in the New York Times and published by Harvard, Georgetown, and other academic institu- tions. She found that incivility in the work- place has risen from 49% in 1998 to, more recently, 62% in 2016. Porath also found that employees who experienced incivility at work spent less time at work, admitted to declining performance and were less commit- ted to their employer. Like the NIH study, Porath discovered that incivility resulted in higher employee turnover, lack of collabora- tion with other employees and, that incivility has a negative impact on the organization, specifically, it’s bad for business. On a positive note, Porath’s studies found that employees who were treated respect-

Holland & Knight LLP First Vice President Jesse H. Ruiz

Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP Second Vice President Maryam Ahmad Cook County State's Attorney's Office Secretary E. Lynn Grayson Nijman Franzetti LLP Treasurer Timothy S. Tomasik Tomasik Kotin Kasserman LLC Executive Director Terrence M. Murphy Assistant Executive Director Elizabeth A. McMeen BOARD OF MANAGERS Jonathan B. Amarilio Alan R. Borlack Judge Thomas M. Durkin Sharon L. Eiseman Mark B. Epstein Nina Fain Hon. LaShonda A. Hunt Michael J. Kaufman Hon. Diane Joan Larsen Lori E. Lightfoot Kathryn Carso Liss Hon. Thomas R. Mulroy Matthew A. Passen

“Courtesy is the bond of all society and there is no society which can last without it.” –Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues W ebster’s defines civility as “civilized conduct” especially, “courtesy” and “politeness.” hat a perfect world this would be if everyone observed the “Golden Rule” and was courteous, polite and civil! Unfortunately, we are daily witnesses to a growing coarseness which seems to be spreading throughout our country, particularly from certain of our elected officials currently residing in Washington, D.C. And incivility is on the rise in the legal profession too. Brief writing, oral arguments, and negotiations among law- yers have reached an all-time low (see my sidebar on page 10 on the Illinois Supreme Court’s decision in the Rahm Emanuel election case). That is why I included this topic as one of the three focus points and themes (along with collegiality and civic education) of my term as CBA President. I believe that we, as members of the legal

Brandon E. Peck Mary Robinson Federico M. Rodriguez John C. Sciaccotta Adam J. Sheppard Helene M. Snyder Greta G. Weathersby Zeophus J. Wiliams

8 SEPTEMBER 2018