To paraphrase Barack Obama, cause lawyers aren’t supposed to make any money: ‘their poverty is proof of their integrity’ (Obama, 2007, p. 135). Integrity and its insignia are, of course, sought-after signifiers not only in the field of community organising that Obama was describing, but in all professions, not least that of cause lawyers that is the focus of this book. The Cultural Lives of Cause Lawyers is the fifth in a series of essays edited by Austin Sarat and Stuart Scheingold on the activities of cause lawyers. Previous collections set the scene for the nature and aims of cause lawyering, analysing their professional and political commitments in theory and in practice, and their relationship to the state and to social movements in a global era. It is a series that almost single-handedly, quickly and efficiently helped define, as well as develop, this exciting new field.