Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism Executive Director Erika Harold was selected to present the 2025 Lewis H. Gold ’62 Lecture on Ethics & Professional Responsibility at Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law. Harold’s presentation was titled “Preventing Bullying in the Legal Profession: An Ethical Case for Courage and Change.”
The Lecture, which was held on February 26, 2025, “honors the memory of Lewis H. Gold ’62, an exceptional advocate with a strong sense of ethics,” according to the Villanova Law website. It was presented by the David F. and Constance B. Girard-diCarlo Center for Ethics, Integrity and Compliance.
Harold also participated in a discussion session with Villanova Law students titled “Zealous Advocacy, Competition and Ambition? Or Incivility, Rudeness and Bullying?” which was presented by Villanova Law’s Girard-diCarlo Center and Lawyers as Leaders program.
“Delivering the Lewis H. Gold ’62 Lecture and honoring Mr. Gold’s legacy of ethics and professionalism was a great privilege as was meeting his many family members and friends who attended,” Harold said. “It was also inspiring to see the impactful way in which the Girard-diCarlo Center is cultivating ethical leadership and equipping law students to be lawyers and leaders with integrity.”
In October 2024, which is National Bullying Prevention Month, the Commission on Professionalism released data from a study of more than 6,000 Illinois lawyers that explored the prevalence and impact of bullying in the legal profession.
The study, believed to be one of the first wide-scale research projects in the U.S. on the topic, defined bullying as inappropriate behavior intended to intimidate, humiliate, or control the actions of another person, including verbal, nonverbal, or physical acts.
The data showed that while bullying impacts all attorneys, it disproportionately affects female attorneys, attorneys with disabilities, attorneys of color, younger attorneys, and LGBTQ+ attorneys.
Bullied lawyers experienced negative professional, emotional, and physical effects, including almost 20% reporting leaving legal jobs due to bullying.
Most lawyers identified the bully as a lawyer external to their organization (33%), a lawyer within their organization in a more senior or high-level position (31%), or a judge (14%).
While a significant number of lawyers reported being bullied in their workplaces, only 20% of bullied attorneys reported the bullying behavior to a supervisor, human resources manager, or upper-level attorney.
The presentation was part of the Commission’s ongoing efforts to raise awareness of the prevalence and impact of bullying in the profession and to implement best practices for addressing it, which were outlined in the study report titled, “Bullying in the Legal Profession: A Study of Illinois Lawyers’ Experiences and Recommendations for Change.”
More information on the study can be found on the Commission’s website.
About the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism
The Illinois Supreme Court established the Commission on Professionalism under Supreme Court Rule 799 to promote integrity, professionalism, and civility among the lawyers and judges of Illinois, to foster a commitment to the elimination of bias and divisiveness within the legal and judicial systems, and to ensure those systems provide equitable, effective, and efficient resolution of problems for the people of Illinois.
The Commission achieves this mission through professional responsibility CLE, lawyer-to-lawyer mentoring, legal professionalism programming, educational resources, robust communications platforms, and more. To learn more, visit 2Civility.org and follow us on LinkedIn.
Press Contact
Laura Bagby, Communications Director
312-363-6209
laura.bagby@2civility.org
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