Bryna Bogoch

Power, Distance and Solidarity: Models of Professional-Client Interaction in an Israeli Legal Aid Setting

It has been suggested that professional-client relationships have changed from the traditional authoritarian model, marked by professional dominance, neutrality and distance, to a participatory, client-centered model that is responsive to the lifeworld of the client. In addition to the effects of the proletarianization and deprofessionalization processes that have been said to diminish professional control, it was expected that the participatory model would prevail in Israel because of ideological commitment to egalitarian, solidary and informal relationships even between strangers. Nineteen lawyer-client conversations in an Israeli legal aid office were analyzed, focusing on five features that reflect the power, distance and solidarity dimensions of these models: (1) conversational openings; (2) professional register; (3) topic control; (4) the expression of emotion; (5) forms of address. Results showed that lawyer-client behavior in Israel resembled the authoritarian model rather than the participatory one. Strategies that were often associated with positive politeness were used by the lawyer for distancing and resulted in interactionally threatening moves. In addition, the sex of the participants and the constraints of bureaucratic practice also affected the model of professional behavior evidenced by these lawyers and clients.

Removing Justitia’s blindfold: the mediatization of law in Israel

This article analyzes the process of mediatization in the legal sphere in Israel. It maps the reciprocal relations between legal professionals and journalists in Israel, and examines the impact of the changes that have occurred in the media on the press coverage of the courts, on legal decision-making and on the legal process. Interviews with judges, lawyers and journalists reveal that, despite evidence of the mediatization of the legal sphere, a number of factors serve to contain this process. We suggest the concept of “judinalism” to describe the changed arena of interaction in which there are contradictory processes of acceleration and moderation of the impact of the media on the legal realm in Israeli society.

Co-optation, competition and resistance: mediation and divorce professionals in Israel

Abstract This paper investigates the development of family mediation in Israel within the theoretical framework of the competition between professions (Abbott, 1988; Shamir, 1993), and the co-optation model of Coy and Hedeen (2005). It describes the formal institutionalization of family mediation in Israel and examines the claims made by lawyers, therapeutic mediators, and lawyer-mediators about the nature and boundaries of their professional enterprise and their goals and practices. Based on 254 questionnaires, semi-structured taped interviews and professional documents, our study found differences in the way the professionals construct the nature of the competition over mediation. While lawyers describe mediators as invading their realm of divorce practice, therapeutic professionals view mediation as a new field of knowledge which they are claiming as their own, in competition with legal professionals. Moreover, although elements of Coy and Hedeens (2005) co-optation model were useful in describing the developing relationship between the divorce professionals, we found different strategies of resistance at each stage of the process.