Unlocking the Secrets of Legal Genius: Measuring Specialist Legal Expertise Through Think-Aloud Verbal Protocol Analysis - Paperback

by Peter MacMillan (Author)

Most of us have heard the phrase "To think like a lawyer." But not many people really know how lawyers think. Even fewer know how expert lawyers think. Yet the tools needed to discover how lawyers assess legal risk and solve legal problems have been around for years. They've just never been adapted for this purpose ... until now. This book outlines an empirically-proven approach to investigating the unique characteristics of legal thinking - particularly the thinking of legal experts - through the use of experimental methods and techniques from the field of cognitive science. It describes in detail the processes of identifying appropriately qualified test subjects, ranking them according to their levels of likely expertise, engaging them with specially designed problem-based tests, and then analysing the resulting qualitative and quantitative data to identify distinguishing cognitive traits and behaviours.The findings presented by the author have the potential to materially improve the assessment methods used in lawyer accreditation schemes, change how clients assess the expertise of their legal advisers, increase the effectiveness of recruitment and in-house training programs within law firms, and lead to new approaches for the design and delivery of post-graduate education at law schools.

Author Biography

Peter Macmillan is a leading authority on how expert lawyers think. A lawyer and cognitive scientist, he has pioneered new empirically-based approaches to the analysis and measurement of specialist legal expertise. Peter began his career as a competition law specialist in 1992 and went on to work for major corporate law firms and government authorities in both Australia and Hong Kong. He currently lives in Hong Kong where he maintains an international research, speaking and consulting practice focusing on the cognitive development of high-level legal skills. Peter holds an LLM from the University of Melbourne and a PhD in law and cognitive psychology from Bond University. Learn more (and read extracts from this book) at peterjmacmillan.com