Mormon writes that the lawyers at Ammonihah were educated men. They were "learned in all the arts and cunning of the people" (Alma 10:15). According to Brant Gardner, this definition appears to be quite parallel to the New Testament "lawyers" who were the scribes, or the ones with the ability to read and write, and therefore ones who had unique access to the law. It is not unreasonable to assume that the Ammonihah lawyers were also some type of scribe.
If that is the case, then the Maya scribe may have held a position paralleling these lawyers in Ammonihah. The recent translation of many of the Maya glyphs has led to tremendous new understanding of Maya history, including the ability to learn more about named individuals. From such inscriptions we learn that the Maya scribe was a member of the elite rank of society. There is one case where, by reading hieroglyphs as well as pictures, a pot-painter can be identified as a child of a seated ruler of Naranjo. As elites with specialized skills, the Maya scribes would have had a particular niche in society, analogous to the scribes of later Jerusalem in their knowledge of law through their ability to read and write, but with perhaps an even greater social standing. If lawyers at Ammonihah had any conceptual parallels with the Maya scribes, then it was not surprising that they were the ones to defend the status quo, and speak out against Alma and Amulek. [Brant Gardner, "Book of Mormon Commentary," [http://www.highfiber.com/] ~nahualli/LDStopics/ Alma/Alma10.htm, p. 9]