Much has been made in our country recently of how incivility is eating away at the very fabric of American culture. Of particular interest to us, as lawyers, is the widely reported slump in prestige that the legal profession has suffered and the waning public confidence in attorneys and the court system.

U.S. News & World Report, in a cover story a short time ago, tackled the issue of incivility and its threat to society, and took direct aim at lawyers when it reported: