For anyone else skimming the comments: An attorney representing the mother in a family law case sent the following email to the attorney for the father (redacted in the opinion):

I have a client who is a drug dealer on . . . Street down town [sic]. He informed me that your daughter, [redacted] was detained for buying cocaine and heroine [sic]. She is, or was, a teenager, right? This happened at night in a known high crime/drug area, where alos [sic] many shootings take place. Lucky for her and the two other teens, they weren't charged. Does this make you and [redacted] bad parents? This incident is far worse than the allegations your client is making. I just thought it was ironic. You claim that this case is so serious and complicated. There is nothing more complicated and serious than having a child grow up in a high class white family with parents who are highly educated and financially successful and their child turning out buying drugs from a crack head at night on or near . . . Street. Think about it. Am I right?

Interestingly, although many jurisdictions (such as South Carolina, where this case is from) have professional conduct rules that include a duty of civility toward opposing counsel, the Model Rules of Professional Conduct promulgated by the American Bar Association do not include a duty of civility as such. (The Model Rules don't themselves have force in any jurisdiction, but they are influential, and most states have adopted them in whole or with modifications.) The Model Rules include a provision that the duty to advocate zealously for a client's interests never compels one to behave uncivilly, and certainly one can argue that this sort of behavior undermines one's practical effectiveness as an advocate and thus violates other duties owed to the client, but there's no freestanding duty of civility.