Abstract
Attorneys assume four roles when representing clients: advocate, advisor, negotiator and evaluator. Only the role of advocate requires conventional courtroom skills and tactics, while the other three roles of advisor, negotiator and evaluator mandate proficiency in a broader skill set that underpins decision-making expertise. This book assists attorneys, law students and clients to become expert decision makers. It summarizes decades of research regarding attorney-client decision making, introduces new data regarding the effectiveness of attorney-client decisions in adjudicated cases, describes the psychological and institutional factors that affect decision making, explains the legal malpractice and disciplinary consequences of poor quality decision processes and presents more than 65 ideas, methods and systems for improving personal and group decision making
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(2007, December 3). The Wall Street Journal, p. A8.
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Many decisions, of course, are high quality decisions with bad outcomes, i.e., good processes accompanied by bad results. The emphasis here on effectiveness promotes closer scrutiny of both poor quality decision making and arguably good quality decision making with adverse outcomes. This emphasis also shifts attention from fault-finding to improvement.
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Each case scenario is based on an actual case on file with the author. The outcome of subsequent appeals, motions, and settlement negotiations, if any, and the existence and importance of non-economic factors are unknown.
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Holmes, Oliver Wendell. (1858). The autocrat of the breakfast-table (pp. 16–17). New York: Dutton, Everyman’s Library.
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Center for Professional Responsibility. (2007). Model rules of professional conduct (p. 1). Chicago, Illinois: American Bar Association.
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“Decision making has been defined as ‘the ability to gather and integrate information, use sound judgment, identify alternatives, select the best solution and evaluate the consequences.’” Salas, Edward, et al. The making of a dream team: When expert teams do best. In Ericsson, K. Anders, et al. (Eds.). (2006). The Cambridge handbook of expertise and expert performance (p. 441). New York: Cambridge University Press. Cf. Tichy, Noel M., and Bennis, Warren G. (2007). Judgment (p. 287). New York: Penguin Group. (“We make a distinction between judgment and decision making”).
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(2008, May 20). The Wall Street Journal, p. A17.
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© 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Kiser, R. (2010). Introduction. In: Beyond Right and Wrong. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-03814-3_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-03814-3_1
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