TLIE Top Tip: We’re on the Same Team
TLIE Top TipsThe legal profession often places us in positions of opposing sides or teams, particularly in roles involving dispute or negotiation–buyer versus seller, plaintiff versus defendant, spouse versus spouse, landlord versus tenant, etc.
Yet, we lawyers are on the same team in pursuit of a “common calling.” The Texas Lawyer’s Creed reminds us: “As members of a learned art we pursue a common calling in the spirit of public service.” We are also admonished to “disagree without being disagreeable,” not be “antagonistic or obnoxious,” not “attribute bad motives or unethical behavior to opposing counsel,” refrain from “unfounded accusations of impropriety,” “avoid disparaging personal remarks,” and “abstain from any allusion to personal peculiarities or idiosyncrasies of opposing counsel.”
There is a verse in a child’s song that sweetly sums up the Lawyer’s Creed’s admonition–“be nice, be nice, and not just once or twice.” A little more being nice to each other will help us fulfill our “common calling” and promote civility in an increasingly uncivil society.
