Primary composition of statements indicating an ethical type

To produce the prototype scale that would satisfy the process for the development of scale items described by Netemeyer, Bearden and Sharma, a number of possible statements (‘items’) were composed. Founded in definitions from the pertinent literature and based on the author's prior experiences in legal practice, a large number of statements were initially drawn up. Each statement was intended to be representative of a lawyer who preferred a particular ethical type, utilising the typology explored in Chapter 3. For example:

• a lawyer who prefers Zealous Advocacy as their approach to legal ethics might respond affirmatively to a statement which asserts ‘Clients are my number 1 priority’,

• a lawyer who preferred Responsible Lawyering might respond strongly to ‘I feel the need to be loyal to the fair process of law before individual loyalty to my clients’,

• a Moral Activist might identify with ‘I want to work on legal issues at a systemic level, not just in relation to individual clients’ problems', and finally

• a Relationship of Care ethicist would likely go along with the statement ‘It is more important for me to strengthen human relationships than it is to get too wound up about “unsafe precedents” or “doubtful legal principles”’.

Primary composition of between 20 and 40 diverse statements such as those above, each intended to get at the key quality represented by an ethical type, was achieved for each type.