Attorney Characteristics and Courtroom Results

A number of sociologists and legal scholars have studied the background characteristics of different types of lawyers. No researcher, however, seems to have yet analyzed the possible relationships between these general characteristics and courtroom results. It is the purpose of this paper to offer some findings relevant to those relationships. The basic theoretical position of this paper is that, in substantial samples of cases, the characteristics of the opposing attorneys are in general relatively trivial predictive or explanatory variables, especially in comparison with the predictive power of the correlations between the outcomes of cases and the factual elements within those cases. The characteristics discussed are those for which there is data in the Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory and which, one would suspect, might correlate with legal ability and thereby make a difference in courtroom results. I. The Research Design II. The Basic Findings … A. Age and Experience … B. Education … C. Associations … D. Evaluations … E. Nationality … F. Other Elements III. Interrelations among the Characteristics IV. Conclusions