Feuding Lawyer Ordered to Take Civility Class, Eat a Meal with His Opponent
Corrected: A Shakespeare-quoting federal judge has ordered a feuding lawyer to take a CLE civility class and to eat a meal with the opponent he labeled an —hole during a deposition.
U.S. District Judge Gene E.K. Pratter wrote in a recent opinion that she was inspired by a Shakespeare quote from The Taming of the Shrew, the Recorder reports. “And do as adversaries do in law, Strive mightily but eat and drink as friends,” the quote reads. Pratter said she hoped that by sharing a meal, the two lawyers could “achieve the Shakespearean vision.”
As a result of the judge’s order, Philadelphia lawyer Lewis Hannah avoided a monetary punishment. He told the Recorder he thinks sharing a meal with the opposing lawyer, James Ellison of Rhoads & Sinon, is “an excellent idea.” Ellison’s motion for sanctions had accused Hannah of calling him an —hole four times during a deposition and also referring to him as a “boy.”
Both Hannah and Ellison are African-American. Hannah told the Recorder that “the context is different when one black man is saying [“boy”] to another black man.” He said it was nonetheless wrong to use the word, and he admitted to the court that he should not have acted as he did.
The Recorder reports these exchanges: Hannah, speaking to Ellison: “Let’s get the judge on the phone, you —hole, if you want to waste time.” Again, Hannah, speaking to Ellison: “Shut up. You are such an a-hole.”
Corrected at 3:20 p.m. to change attribution of the second quote in the last paragraph from Ellison to Hannah. The error repeated a mistake in the original Recorder story, which has since been corrected.
