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Language and civility.

Article Excerpt
Editor's Note: The Florida Bar Standing Committee on Professionalism recently presented Jason Hawkins the Lion of Justice Trophy for winning its annual Law Student Professionalism Essay contest. Hawkins is in his second year of law school at the University of Florida and is the son of Leon County Judge Judith Hawkins. Each year, essays on the topic of legal professionalism are collected by each Florida law school and the best essay from each law school is submitted to the Bar's Center for Professionalism. The winner is chosen from those essays by The Florida Bar Standing Committee on Professionalism. The Center for Professionalism administrates the award for the committee and also distributes a newsletter, The Professional. The summer issue is now available.

In recent years, much has been made about the decline of civility among lawyers. Examples abound of uncivil language that was once either unthinkable or improbable--threatening to have an opposing counsel's sexual organs removed if her motion was successful, (1) calling another attorney's motion "total trash" and "worthless," (2) and even repeated use of...

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