President's Message

     I have been reading lately on the topic of civil society and public discourse, a topic many of us bemoan as tragically dead in this day and age.  However, it occurred to me that lawyers – and more particularly, lawyers of the WWBA – serve to protect and preserve public, civil discourse more than any other profession.

      First, lawyers must consistently practice civil discourse in their profession or, at the very least, be ostracized by their peers and, at the worst, be sanctioned by the Court. Courtroom discourse is structured so that each side has an opportunity to provide their version of the facts as they see them, and the presence of a judge and perhaps even a jury ensures that these oral presentations will be courteous. While we certainly work within an adversarial system, the way that we communicate our advocacy is strikingly more civil than the public discourse of today. 

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