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Mechanisms and Consequences of Professional Marginality: The Case of Poverty Lawyers Revisited

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 December 2018

Marina Zaloznaya  and
Laura Beth Nielsen
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Abstract

A partial replication of Jack Katz's (1982) Poor People's Lawyers in Transition, this article explores the manifestations and consequences of professional marginality of legal aid lawyers. Based on thirty-five interviews with poverty attorneys and interns in Chicago, the authors show that scarce material resources and unclear expectations continue to give rise to the marginalization of this segment of the legal profession. The authors analyzed ideological, task, status, and material dimensions of attorneys' professional marginality. With no access to reform litigation, central to the legal aid “culture of significance” in the 1970s, present-day poverty lawyers seek new ways to cope with marginality. The authors argue that these lawyers' coping strategies have many negative consequences. Thus, over time, poverty lawyers' deep engagement with clients, ideals of empowerment, and social justice orientation give way to emotional detachment, complacency, and an emphasis on “making do” within the constraints of the system.

Type
Articles
Information
Law & Social Inquiry , Volume 36 , Issue 4 , Fall 2011 , pp. 919 - 944
Copyright
Copyright © American Bar Foundation, 2011 

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