The influences of openness to experience and reflection-in-action upon the attainment of legal expertise

The primary purpose of the present study is the initial exploration into the influences of the personality characteristics of reflection-in-action, openness to experience, trust and intelligence on the attainment of legal expertise. Four groups of subjects, representing four levels of legal expertise, participated in the present study; expert attorney (49 total), non-expert attorney with twenty or more years of legal experience (18), non-expert attorney with nineteen or less years of legal experience (30), law student with no legal experience (22). 119 total subjects in all filled out the sixty item questionnaire. Significant differences were found between litigators and non-litigators regarding the reflection-in-action statement set. These significant differences held for all litigation subsets analyzed. Reflection-in-action and openness to experience were found to significantly positively correlate with each other. Further analysis uncovered the underlying factor structures for these two variables. Significant results are reported for the individual factors and factor combinations that differed among the subject populations. Theoretical and practical reasons are given for the findings of significant differences between litigating attorneys and non-litigating attorneys for the variable of reflection-in-action. Implications of the present study for further research in this area is discussed. The measurement and evaluation of this data is useful for the better understanding of the very complex nature of expertise.