Been Bullied?
One out of every four Illinois lawyers recounts being bullied between 2022 and 2023, according to a survey completed by more than 6,000 attorneys. Results of the survey, administered by the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism, were released in October in the form of a report, “Bullying in the Legal Profession: A Study of Illinois Lawyers’ Experiences and Recommendations for Change.” In the December Illinois Bar Journal’s cover story, “Been Bullied?”, the IBJ interviews ISBA members involved with the survey and reports on the results of the study, believed to be one of the first large research projects in the U.S. focused on bullying in the legal profession.
Read the November Illinois Bar Journal’s article, “Been Bullied?”
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Member Comments (1)
All the types of "bullying" identified by the article (and apparently the Supreme Court Commission) are types of behavior that go on in every day adult life and are not at all unique to the legal profession. Learning to deal with problem people, in whatever profession or occupation, is just part of growing-up and living in the real world.
What's the remedy for "bullying" as identified by the Supreme Court Commission? Are you going to file a complaint with the ARDC if you feel that you have been bullied? If so, the ARDC is going to be swamped with complaints. And it will make all attorneys fearful of interacting with each other. Be careful what you wish for.
I used to tell my clients that you choose what kind of day you're going to have. If someone says something nasty to you, for instance, you choose how you are going to react to that - you can let it ruin your day or you can smile and go on - you don't allow that person to control your feelings. If you are so fragile that you can't handle someone rolling their eyes at you, saying disrespectful things about you, etc. then maybe you chose the wrong profession.
Frankly, this is nonsense, and for it to be the lead article in the Illinois Bar Journal is worse. The gentleman who authored this article also wrote an article in the March 2024 IBJ entitled "Being a Pronoun Pro." It seems that we have lost our way. Our primary concern should be with being competent attorneys and taking care of our clients. The Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct dictate how we are to interact with our fellow attorneys. We don't need a commission to make recommendations on how to "better" interact or articles about the "proper" use of pronouns.