Full Description
Written by a lawyer who works at the intersection between legal education and practice in access to justice and human rights, this book locates, describes and defines a collective identity for social justice lawyering in the UK.
Underpinned by theories of cause lawyering and legal mobilisation, the book argues that it is vital to understand the positions that progressive lawyers collectively take in order to frame the connections they make between their personal and professional lives, the tools they use to achieve social change, as well as ethical tensions presented by their work.
The book takes a reflexive ethnographic approach to capture the stories of 35 lawyers working to positively transform law and policy in the UK over the last 50 years. It also draws on a wealth of primary sources including case reports, historic campaign materials and media analysis alongside wider ethnographic interviews with academics, students and lawyers and participant observation at social justice conferences, workshops and events.
The book explains the way in which lawyers' networks facilitate their collective positioning and influence their strategic decision making, which in turn shapes their interactions with social activists, with other lawyers and with the state itself.
Contents
1. Introduction
2. The Context and Controversies of Progressive Lawyering
The Context of Progressive Lawyering
Cause Lawyering and Legal Mobilisation
The Controversies of Progressive Lawyering
Conclusions
3. Identifying Progressive Lawyers
Narrative Methodology
Reflexivity and Elite Interviewing
Identifying Areas of Practice
Ethnography
Fieldwork Interviews: Research Participant Selection
Other Data Sources and Data Analysis
Contested Labelling of Progressive Legal Identity
Conclusions
4. Pathways to Law
The Legal Profession and Social Class
Shared Beginnings
Shared Left Values
Shared Turning Points
Collective Identity: Conclusions
5. Tools for Change
Legal Advice and Representation
Strategic Litigation
Policy Work and Campaigning
Conclusions
6. Educating Progressive Lawyers
An Autoethnographic Perspective on Legal Education
Social Alienation at Law School
Bringing US Experience Home
A Formative UK Experience
Conclusions
7. Professional Legal Ethics and the Progressive Social Self
Resolute Positions
Constrained Positions
Conflict and Contestation
Conclusions
8. Sustaining Progressive Lawyering
Funding and Burnout
Passion and Persistence
Knowledge and Experience
Barristers and Excellence
Social Mobility and Access
Conclusions
9. Lawyers, Networks and the Future of Progressive Lawyering: 'This Work Needs to be Done'
Conceptualising a Progressive Lawyering Movement
A Progressive Lawyering Future
Appendix One: Table of Narrative Interviews
Appendix Two: Narrative Interview Question Guide
