Abstract

Ted Schneyer's analyses of the politics of the organized bar are an important contribution to our understanding of the public roles of lawyers and of the influence structure within the profession. His work built on and clarified a scholarly literature on interest groups within the profession and on the place of lawyers within political networks. In The Power Elite, C. Wright Mills characterized lawyers as "professional go-betweens" who "act to unify the power elite." He also said: "To the extent that there is any 'invisible elite, ' these advisory and liaison types are at its core."

This Article compares networks of relationships among elite lawyers (and some other advocates, notably Washington lobbyists) found in research conducted over a period of more than thirty years in varying professional and political contexts. Several pieces of scholarship, consistent with Mills, argue that political networks are hierarchical, with a densely connected core of elites surrounded by more peripheral players. Other research, however, found network structures with empty centers—a "hollow core." Interviews with Chicago lawyers in 1975 and 1995 and more recent research on lawyers active in conservative politics found some lawyers in central, mediating roles—that is, hierarchical structures with "go-betweens" in the core. Research on broader samples of lawyers active in national policymaking, however, found networks with hollow cores. This Article compares these several findings and offers possible explanations for the differences among them.

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