® January 2000 The Monthly Newspaper of the Philadelphia Bar Association Vol. 29, No. 1 Annual Meeting R O U N D - U P Family Law Da vis Urges Bar to Embrace Section Chair-Elect Lise Fisher reported on Dec. 6 that the section would par- ticipate in public hearings Ci v i l i t y , Fam i l y , Tech n o l o g y that began on Dec. 10 to review proposed legislation by Robert Nigro to overhaul the Family Court system. She added that she Anticipating her leadership of the Bar Association this year, intends, after a new section 1999 Chancellor-Elect Doreen S. Davis urged all lawyers to task force considers the legis- embrace civility and family-friendly workplaces and to foster lation, that the section will advances in technology for use in the justice system and equality continue to testify at future in the profession. Davis outlined her goals in these areas during hearings. her address to Bar members at the Association’s Annual Meeting on Dec. 7 in the Crystal Tea Room in the Wanamaker Building. Social Security Disability As she prepared to become the Bar’s 73rd Chancellor, Davis, Mark Patlove, president of partner in Montgomery, McCracken, Walker & Rhoads LLP, Integrated Microsystems, touched upon several plans and ideas to improve the profession spoke to committee members in her address: on Nov. 19 about computer • Increased civility among lawyers in the practice of software for case manage- law. “We must find new ways to build a civil profession and ment, time and billing, e- society,” she said. She added that she believes she is “privileged” mail and Internet access, to practice labor law, “where, for the most part, a semblance of accounting systems and net- civility and collegiality still holds sway.” She added, however, that working computers in a she believes the profession must regain a sense of civility “before small office. Patlove also we are swept away by a rising tide of detachment, cynicism and opined that attorney or firm destructiveness.” Web sites are not very viable Davis said that ‘tide’ should trouble not just lawyers, but also unless the sites are promoted society. “Common decency and civility seem to be on the ropes. and/or advertised. Meanwhile, crassness, insensitivity and outright mayhem seem to be on the rise,” Davis said, while lawyers have fostered a legal State Civil and social revolution “that may have too often placed individual Common Pleas Court against individual and group against group, perhaps at the Judge Marlene F. Lachman expense of the common good.” spoke at the committee’s She noted that recently the Council on Civil Society, in its Doreen S. Davis, the Bar’s 73rd Chancellor, addresses attendees of the Nov. 17 meeting and offered Report to the Nation, observed that “while our roles as workers and B a r’s Dec. 7 Annual Meeting in the Crystal Tea Room in the her perspectives on several continued on page 12 Wanamaker Building. topics. Among her “pet peeves,” she said, are lawyers who contaminate the jury pool by seeking publicity for Bar Adopts Model Family Leave Policy large verdicts, because it is getting harder to find jurors by Robert Nigro Klinges, to update the Bar’s existing pol- Leslie Dalton and Kathleen Wilkinson. who are not biased against icy. They are new guidelines for law Wilkinson explained that since the Bar’s large recoveries. During its Dec. 20 meeting, the Board firms and other employers who are first policies were finalized in 1989, of Governors unanimously adopted the committed to ensuring their own com- more women have entered the work- Women in the Profession Committee’s pliance with federal law, particularly in force, and workplace trends such as Model Employer Policies for Parenting the area of disability leave as a result of part-time and flex-time work and In This Issue ... Lawyers and resolutions from the Fee pregnancy, childbirth and related med- telecommunting have become more Disputes Committee to adopt operating ical conditions and the Family Medical common. But, she added, many women 3 Fidelity Award rules for the committee’s new Lawyer Leave Act. The policies also seek to help told the committee that their firms still 4 Chacker Reflects Fee Dispute Resolution Program and to remove unfair barriers to the advance- had no policy regarding maternity leave permanently incorporate the commit- ment of women lawyers and to assist all or that there was little opportunity for 10 Annual Meeting Pics tee’s pilot Mediation Program into the lawyers who seek better balance of their part-or flex-time work. committee’s operating rules. family, personal and professional In revising the model policies, the 9 Peckman Leads YLD The parenting lawyer policies are the responsibilities. committee and its Advisory Council and culmination of the committee’s work, The policies were presented to the Junior Women Task Force studied the 17 Guidance Opinion led by Marianne E. Brown and Dana B. Board by 1999 Committee Chairs Jane continued on page 14 Visit the Philadelphia Bar Association on the World Wide Web at www.philadelphiabar.org • E-mail the Philadelphia Bar Reporter at [email protected] We Must Sound Barwide Call to Enhance Civility by Doreen S. Davis It probably has happened to you at least once by now. F R O N T L I N E Maybe we need to lay out an informal code of conduct to make sure You’re at the movies. Or maybe everyone understands what it means to be civil. Maybe the unified even at the theater or the symphony. Or worse yet, in church or at syna- court system of New York state got it right recently when it adopted gogue. It’s crowded and quiet and a set of standards of civility for all of the state’s lawyers, judges and you’re trying to be attentive. And then it happens. court employees. Someone’s cell phone or beeper or wrist alarm goes off. What might oth- erwise have been a barely noticed sound amidst the normal clamor of everyday life now echoes in the ears standards of civility for all of the behalf of his or her client. These are just a few examples. But of hundreds. state’s lawyers, judges and court What kinds of principals are progress on civility in even a few It’s so obvious, intrusive and rude. employees. These aspirational princi- stressed? Basically principles such as areas can begin to make a real differ- And when this type of thing hap- ples of behavior are not issued as those which I mentioned in my ence, so much so that I think it’s pens on a regular basis it contributes court rules and are not intended to be remarks last month at our Annual worth a try. to the deterioration of civility. And it is enforced by sanctions or disciplinary Meeting: Maybe that cell phone or beeper in happening much more often than it action. But they have been formulated • Avoid disparaging remarks about the theater is meant to be a wake-up should. In fact, it’s gotten so bad that with the full involvement and support or unprofessional conduct toward oth- call for all of us. Maybe that alarm we announcements frequently must be of the organized bar and they carry ers. Be courteous in all dealings with hear is sounding for us and for our made before performances and public with them a common-sense impera- others. Be civil regardless of the ill profession. events telling audience members to tive that makes them hard to ignore. feelings the clients might have toward Time is running out. As lawyers turn off their beepers and cell phones. The guidelines are divided into one another. Let us serve our clients and judges, if we don’t respect each This is sad, because people should four sections: lawyers’ duties to other without disserving each other. other, if we’re not civil to one another, know better. But if reminders about lawyers, litigants and witnesses; • Respect the schedule and com- how can we expect ordinary people to how to behave are needed, then they lawyers’ duties to courts and court mitments of opposing counsel, consis- respect us? Think about it. personnel; judges’ duties to lawyers, tent with protection of the client’s ought to be put into place. And if a Doreen S. Davis, partner in the law firm of word to the wise can begin to make a parties and witnesses and the duties of interest. Return phone calls. Respond M o n t g o m e r y, McCracken, Walker & Rhoads LLP, is court personnel to the court, lawyers to messages and inquiries. Agree to Chancellor of the Philadelphia Bar Association. Her e- difference and contribute to a more mail address is ch a n c l o r @ p h i l a ba r. o r g . civil society, then it’s worth trying. and litigants. reasonable requests for extensions of The same reasoning applies to pro- Within each section is a series of time. A first extension should ordinar- fessional behavior. Maybe we need to principles intended to encourage civil- ily be granted as a matter of courtesy. lay out an informal code of conduct to ity and courtesy among participants. • Civility also applies to others. A make sure everyone understands what The idea is to encourage professional- judge should be patient, courteous and it means to be civil. Maybe the unified ism and decorum as an aid to resolv- civil to lawy ers, parties and witnesses.