The lawyer-client relationship is shifting from professional dominance toward collaboration
Evidence
In recent years, however, this model of professional dominance has come under attack. In medicine this is reflected in the development of the notion of informed consent: Physicians should explain the various options available to patients and proceed with a course of treatment only after receiving their consent. In law, too, the idea of a more collaborative relationship between lawyer and client has gained currency. Proponents of this more cooperative approach suggest that clients should consider, along with their lawyers, such matters as “whether to sue at all, the ground rules of the lawyer’s and client’s mutual contact, the lawyer’s fee, the preparation of the case, the best time to sue, whether to seek a jury trial or special trial preference, various issues of settlement strategy, and the preparation for examination before trial.” However, as the relationship between professional and client becomes more collaborative, defining the responsibilities of each becomes more difficult. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 756
Categorization
- XREF: The informed-consent/collaboration parallel between medicine and law connects to the course’s focus on how legal actors interpret and apply law and how legal values shape doctrine. — connects to: Client satisfaction can diverge sharply from the quality of professional practice. — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of…, 1223; Lawyers in law reform litigation often pursue remedies that diverge from client preferences. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1178; Lawyers act as client delegates or as trustees for assumed group goals — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 895 (+3 more)
- DEFINE: Introduces the concept of informed consent, borrowed from medicine, as a model reshaping the lawyer-client relationship.
Broader Connections
- Lawyers act as client delegates or as trustees for assumed group goals
#complicates(0.82) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 895 - Lawyers in law reform litigation often pursue remedies that diverge from client preferences.
#complicates(0.78) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1178 - Professional norms subordinate agency rules to individual client needs.
#complicates(0.75) — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 1172 - Attorneys function as family, priest, and therapist for their clients
#complicates(0.74) — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law, 674 - Client satisfaction can diverge sharply from the quality of professional practice.
#complicates(0.72) — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 1223