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Being Part of the “Home Team”

Perceptions of Professional Interactions with Outsider Attorneys

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 October 2022

Todd A. Collins ,
Tao L. Dumas  and
Laura P. Moyer
Todd A. Collins*
Affiliation:
Western Carolina University
Tao L. Dumas
Affiliation:
The College of New Jersey
Laura P. Moyer
Affiliation:
University of Louisville
*
Contact the corresponding author at tcollins@email.wcu.edu.
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Abstract

Understanding how attorneys’ perceptions of “insider” and “outsider” status affect negotiations is of both theoretical and practical importance for understanding the judicial system. We utilize a comprehensive survey of attorneys from one state to explore views of trustworthiness and negotiations. Overall, as attorneys become more embedded in their in-group, they increasingly report lower trust levels and less effective negotiations with outsiders. These relationships do vary somewhat by the scope and location of the attorney’s practice. Our findings provide insight into one possible causal mechanism underlying the “repeat player” advantage; they also suggest new directions for research on case outcomes.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Law and Courts , Volume 5 , Issue 1 , Spring 2017 , pp. 141 - 171
Copyright
© 2017 by the Law and Courts Organized Section of the American Political Science Association. All rights reserved.

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Footnotes

Authors’ names are listed alphabetically, and each contributed equally to the project. We would like to thank the editor and the anonymous referees for their helpful suggestions, and we acknowledge support from the Public Policy Institute at Western Carolina University.

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