The Negotiator as Professional : Understanding the Competing Interests of a Representative Negotiator

This article is about lawyers as negotiators, and in particular, it is about identifying and understanding the influential and potentially competing interests that are - or at least should be - in the minds of lawyers (and potentially other third party representatives) during the overall negotiation process. While there continues to be an increasing amount of literature on the mechanics and strategies of negotiation, the underlying interests that are typically at stake in representative negotiations from the perspective of representatives - particularly negotiations involving lawyers - have not been adequately studied. Current accounts of the representative negotiator do not paint a full picture of what is typically going on inside the representative's mind, and as such, provide an impoverished view of his or her role, both in terms of its responsibilities and its potential opportunities. To address these deficiencies, this article advances an alternative, expansive model of the representative negotiator: the negotiator-as-professional model. It is a model that sees the role of the representative negotiator as being defined by at least four sets of interests: client interests, a broad understanding of the representative's self-interests (that may include, but are not limited to, interests vis-a-vis the representative negotiator's bargaining opposite), ethical interests and the public's interests