Attorney As Negotiators Essay

Attorneys as Negotiators Another role attorneys commonly fulfill in the United States is that of a negotiator. This is a role they play while also acting as an advocate since when the attorneys are fulfilling this role they are negotiating on behalf of their clients. Negotiation is defined in Merriam-Webster Dictionary as “a formal discussion between people who are trying to reach an agreement” (Merriam-Webster, n.d.) The role of being a negotiator, or trying to reach an agreement in the case, is a significant one for an attorney because it is popular to settle cases rather than go to trial in both criminal and civil proceedings. In criminal proceedings, both prosecutors and defense attorneys act as negotiators when plea bargaining. A plea bargaining is an agreement that is …show more content…
Acting as a negotiator causes attorneys to walk the fine line between aggressively pursuing their clients’ interest and being open-minded to settlement options. (Friedrichs, 2012) Walking that fine line can sometimes cause attorneys to be ineffective litigators or negotiators. This raises one of the issues pertaining to attorneys acting as negotiators is whether or not the attorneys should be taking on the role at all or would it be better if a separate person from the attorney handling a case would handle the negotiations. This is an issue Gary Mendelsohn considers in his piece Lawyers as Negotiators. Mr. Mendelsohn argues that there are certain factors that would cause the attorney acting as the litigator in a case to be an ineffective negotiator in the case and vice versa. Gary believes it would better if the duties were split amongst separate persons. (Mendelsohn, 1996) Whether Mr. Mendelsohn is correct in his belief or not is debatable. However, what does not seem to be debatable is that attorneys taking on the role of a negotiator brings up some interesting