From our interview and my past experience with George, it is quite obvious to me how important relationships are to him. Whether it be with his client or the opposing counsel, George always strives to build positive relationships. I think part of this comes from growing up and working in the same community. For many of the people he deals with, he knows them outside of work and has a personal relationship with them. This forces George to maintain these relationships even while on the job. Because of this, George has built a very solid reputation both in the public and in the legal community. As the Reputation in Negotiation article said on page 264, reputations are purposefully built and carefully protected. It appears George is successfully…show more content… The typical strategies employed by members of the compromising style are urging moderating, making trade-offs, splitting the difference, and findings a little something for everyone. Id. Some of the typical strategies for the accommodating style are to agree, support, placate, and create goodwill. Id. The source of power for the compromising style is moderation and reasonableness while the source of power for the accommodating style is relationships and approval of others.…show more content… Numerous times I have seen George go over a distribution of personal property list that his own client proposed and tell the client that it is not “fair.” He then says the client needs to give the other side more if they actually want to make a deal. Even though he admits that fairness is subjective, George tries to reach agreements that he thinks are fair to both sides. With that said, he was quick to clarify that he still looks out for his own client’s best interests. As for the accommodating style, I have also seen George give in easily to demands of the other side when his client does not seem to care much about the outcome. This may be partly from his client’s genuine indifference to certain request as well as partly due to his accommodating style of trying to maintain positive relationships. On that note, George did mention to me that being agreeable is not the only way to keep positive relationships. He said that in his experience, members of the both the public and legal community appreciate and admire zealous advocacy on behalf of your client so long as you remain honest and fair. Specifically, for the actions I would classify as the compromising style, I think the field of law George practices may play a role here. In family law, it is hard to have much of a case based strictly on the merits. Often times, each side has just as much legal right to the marital property as the other side
