COMMUNITY LAWYERING – THE ROLE OF LAWYERS IN THE SOCIAL JUSTICE MOVEMENT

Within the past decade there has been a renewed interest in a style of practice we call “community lawyering.” I use the term “renewed” because it involves a return to some of the values and practices of legal advocates in prior mass struggles, such as the labor movement, the civil rights movement, and the earliest stages of federalized legal services. The term has come to be used very broadly with a myriad of individual descriptions, strains and tendencies, each with their own pedigree. The most unifying feature seems to be a deep unease with the degree to which the representation of poor and working people has been individualized, atomized, depoliticized and divorced from any leadership by real organized constituencies with their own substantive and political goals. It is accompanied by a realization that meaningful systemic change cannot result from this depoliticized and atomized approach. This has resulted in the search for a law practice that recognizes the centrality and leadership of the organized constituency in achieving meaningful change