PERSONALITY TRAITS AND REASONABLY  GOOD LAWYERS

Michael Sean Quinn, Lawyer

Austin, Texas

Go Wikipedia under the title “Big Five Personality Traits” and look at, examine, and/or review the diagram. Read the article there if you wish, but intuition is good enough. The diagram is to be found in many places. 

Here is a list of the five: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, neuroticism, and agreeableness. 

Are any of these traits probably necessary for excellence in this or that field in the practice of law? You may, but I do not, count marketing as the practice of law.  Shame on me? Unwise of me?

Significant psychologists, e.g., Walter Mischel, have criticized the idea at great length, partly on the grounds that it is insufficiently nuanced. I suspect that this is partly true. 


Answer by way of Comment as you see fit, short or long, for example. Please divide by practice fields.