CAREER ACTIVISM BY LAWYERS: CONSEQUENCES FOR THE PERSON, THE LEGAL PROFESSION, AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

• Date: 08 November 2001
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/S1521-6136(2001)0000003011
• Pages: 181-206
• Published date: 08 November 2001
• Author: Lynn C. Jones

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CAREER ACTIVISM BY LAWYERS:

CONSEQUENCES FOR THE PERSON,

THE LEGAL PROFESSION, AND

SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

Lynn C. Jones

ABSTRACT

This project serves as a starting point for exploring the biographical

consequences of activist lawyering in terms of one’s legal career, activist

career, and other personal life choices. The data here is limited to the

individual lawyer’s narratives, but they do highlight some important

consequences for the legal profession and for social movements and social

movement organizations (SMOs). The possible tensions that arise for those

who are both activist and lawyer, as well as an understanding of the

conditions under which these tensions arise and are resolved, are

investigated. Findings suggest that lawyers who are involved in movements

as “core activist lawyers” are able to balance the tensions of their work

and activism so that neither career nor cause is sacrificed. “Marginal”

activist lawyers may not face the same tensions as they hold on to more

traditional professional roles and experiences.

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Legal Professions: Work, Structure and Organization, pages 181–206.

Copyright © 2001 by Elsevier Science Ltd.

All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.

ISBN: 0-7623-0800-1

INTRODUCTION

In research on social movements, most discussion of law and legal actors is

limited to tactics, outcomes, or is lumped into “the state”. With some notable

exceptions, professionals are typically treated as sharing elite interests and goals

(however defined) and to act accordingly. This is no less true for mainstream

lawyers, who are viewed as carriers of conservative ideologies constrained by

professional rules and obligations and belief in the rule of law. Although

movements and lawyers may have obvious links, there has been little systematic

investigation into the conditions under which law and social movements

intersect or the character of the lawyers and activists involved in this

intersection. “Cause lawyering” is often understood to be at odds with the larger

profession and, perhaps, outside the realm of professional ethics and serving

client’s interests (Sarat & Scheingold, 1998). To help enrich our understanding

of the processes of maintaining activism and activist careers among

professionals or elites, and whether it matters that they are professionals or

elites, I have chosen to conduct ethnographic research1with one kind of

movement professional: activist lawyers.

Lawyers involved with social movements have been called “radical” lawyers,

“movement” lawyers, “cause” lawyers, “progressive” lawyers, and other terms

referring to the political nature of their role.2While these terms are somewhat

interchangeable, I use the term “activist lawyer” because I am attempting to

link and compare what these lawyers do to activism or to other activists. William

Kunstler, who defended members of the “Chicago Seven” in the late ’60s and

was a lifelong advocate of progressive social movements, often comes to mind

as the epitome of cause lawyers on the left and the ACLU is a legal organization

that reaches into the realm of social movements. Other organizations, such as

the NAACP, are well-known for their significant role in legal and political

changes for the underrepresented, and lawyers are part of these movement

organizations as well. At the same time, it is possible that cause lawyering

could involve representing conservative interests on the right wing of the

political spectrum (e.g. lawyers actively supporting pro-life interests in the

abortion conflict). In this project I focus on individual lawyers who work in or

for a variety of organizations (legal and movement), with a primary focus on

lawyering on the left3It becomes interesting, then, to explore the conditions

under which lawyers either step out of their professional role to become activists

or combine their professional role with their personal, activist role or identity.

Specifically, I explore the degree to which this overlap is possible, and whether

the personal and professional consequences of activism by lawyers compare to

those for other kinds of activists. Underlying my research is the question how

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182 LYNN C. JONES