Cause lawyer

A cause lawyer, also known as a public interest lawyer or social lawyer, is a lawyer dedicated to the usage of law for the promotion of social change. Cause lawyering is commonly described as a practice of "lawyering for the good" or using law to empower members of the weaker layers of society. It may or may not be performed pro bono. Cause lawyering is frequently practiced by individual lawyers or lawyers employed by associations that aim to supply a public service as a complementary to the State provided legal aid.

See also

• Public interest
• Social change
• Social justice
• The Hollow Hope

References

• The Worlds Cause Lawyers Make: Structure and Agency in Legal Practice ( Editors: Austin Sarat, Stuart Scheingold; Stanford Law and Politics; 2005)
• Gerald N. Rosenberg, The Hollow Hope: Can Courts Bring About Social Change? Second Edition (American Politics and Political Economy Series (University Of Chicago Press, 2008)
• Margareth Etienne, The Ethics of Cause Lawyering: An Empirical Examination of Criminal Defense Lawyers as Cause Lawyers, Vol. 95, The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology (1973), pp. 1195–1260

External links

• Steve Berenson, Government Lawyer as Cause Lawyer: A Study of Three High Profile Government Lawsuits