September 25, 2017 / Published Work

From Law360: How plaintiffs and defense counsel misperceive each other

Phil Calabrese, co-chair of Porter Wright's Class Action Practice Group, recently co-authored the article, “How plaintiffs and defense counsel misperceive each other,” published at Law360.com. In the article, Calabrese and co-author Daniel Karon from Karon LLC in Cleveland, Ohio, take a humorously critical look at some of the reasons why “opposing lawyers have such a dreadful time getting along.”

From Law360.com

“We — a plaintiffs class action lawyer and a defense class action lawyer — examined ourselves. We asked what we believed our opposition thought about us and how our opposition judged us. Afterward, we presented this self-portrait to each other for assessment. We wanted to see how accurate we were about what we believed our opposition thought. 

From this exercise, we hoped an understanding might emerge about what plaintiffs and defense lawyers think of each other. From this understanding, we hoped to draw comparisons and to recognize contrasts. We hoped to reveal an understanding that would demonstrate how similar we are and why, based on these similarities, there exists no basis for the professional consternation that infects our profession.” 

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