Are We Still Obstreperous? Can’t We Do Anything?

February 19, 2015
The Legal Intelligencer

Types : Bylined Articles

I’ll start with a warning: We are all obstreperous at one time or another. Accept that this could apply to you, and read on.

The first time I thought to write about the obstreperous behavior of lawyers and judges, in 2006, I called it “Obstreperosity” (33 ABA Litigation, No. 1, Fall 2006). Although the American Bar Association Journal’s editor confronted me with the fact that “obstreperosity” didn’t seem to be a real word, I insisted on the title, so maybe the word was born (unlikely, though I get a small credit for expanding the ABA’s vocabulary). It’s still not in wide use (very few Google “alerts” come my way), but surely the concept is acknowledged. And we see obstreperous behavior all the time: stubborn defiance or resistance to control; unruly or aggressive behavior.

I still keep track of such conduct. An ex-colleague at the Defender Association of Philadelphia calls me an obnoxicologist, which is rejected by Microsoft Word’s spellcheck. Notwithstanding Word’s verdict, the field of obnoxicology has a certain legitimacy. Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Kentucky have granted CLE credit for sitting through my description of the latest F-bombs dropped in various legal and other settings (annotated with rules and rulings, of course).

So, what has happened in the past 10 years? Has our behavior improved? Worsened? Are we more self-reflecting? Better at controlling our reactions and rages? Better handling the obstreperous conduct of others? Have we at least improved our ability to hide it from courts and clients, to stay out of trouble?

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