A cause lawyer, also known as a public interest lawyer or social lawyer, is a
lawyer
A lawyer is a person who is qualified to offer advice about the law, draft legal documents, or represent individuals in legal matters.
The exact nature of a lawyer's work varies depending on the legal jurisdiction and the legal system, as w ...
dedicated to the usage of
law
Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...
for the promotion of
social change
Social change is the alteration of the social order of a society which may include changes in social institutions, social behaviours or social relations. Sustained at a larger scale, it may lead to social transformation or societal transformat ...
to address a
cause
Causality is an influence by which one event, process, state, or object (''a'' ''cause'') contributes to the production of another event, process, state, or object (an ''effect'') where the cause is at least partly responsible for the effect, ...
. 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
( English: 'for the public good'), usually shortened to , is a Latin phrase for professional work undertaken voluntarily and without payment. The term traditionally referred to provision of legal services by legal professionals for people who a ...
. Cause lawyering is frequently practiced by individual lawyers or lawyers employed by associations that aim to supply a public service to complement state-provided
legal aid
Legal aid is the provision of assistance to people who are unable to afford legal representation and access to the court system. Legal aid is regarded as central in providing access to justice by ensuring equality before the law, the right ...
.
Cause lawyering is performed by a
lawyer
A lawyer is a person who is qualified to offer advice about the law, draft legal documents, or represent individuals in legal matters.
The exact nature of a lawyer's work varies depending on the legal jurisdiction and the legal system, as w ...
or a firm that is "most frequently directed at altering some aspect of the social, economic, and political status quo." The content of the issue is not particularly relevant, only the advocacy of an issue and the attempt to bring about
social change
Social change is the alteration of the social order of a society which may include changes in social institutions, social behaviours or social relations. Sustained at a larger scale, it may lead to social transformation or societal transformat ...
through legal or even quasi-legal avenues. Cause lawyering can include dedicated advocacy by public interest firms,
pro bono
( English: 'for the public good'), usually shortened to , is a Latin phrase for professional work undertaken voluntarily and without payment. The term traditionally referred to provision of legal services by legal professionals for people who a ...
work by attorneys in private practice and other non-traditional forms of law practice that advocates a cause.
[Laura Beth Nielsen & Catherine R. Albiston, The Organization of Public Interest Practice: 1975-2004, 84 N.C. L. Rev. 1591, 1603 (2006).] Lawyers who work for the government, whether federal, state, or local, can also be cause lawyers; although the majority of cause lawyering tends to be adversarial towards the state.
Definition
As coined by experts Stuart Scheingold and
Austin Sarat
Austin Sarat (born November 2, 1947) is an American political scientist who is William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science at Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts. He is also a Five College Fortieth Anniversary P ...
in their work ''Something to Believe In: Politics, Professionalism, and Cause Lawyering'', cause lawyering consists of "using legal skills to pursue ends and ideals that transcend client service – be those ideals social, cultural, political, economic or indeed, legal". There is no single "correct" way to define what Cause Lawyering is or who is a cause lawyer. Cause lawyering is particularly hard to put limits around because it encompasses so much in the legal world and almost any issue can be considered an issue or cause that is being advocated for, and thereby qualifying as cause lawyering. Cause lawyering does not require a particular political side, but does require a "determination to take sides in political and moral struggle without making distinctions between worthy and unworthy causes".
Cause lawyering is less about the client and more about the issue the client represents. Cause lawyering is about the belief in a cause or issue and the will/desire to advance that cause. Cause lawyers tend to choose clients on the basis of their own ideological grounds, no matter where they fall on the political, social, economic, and /or legal spectrum.
[''Id.''] What ultimately separates the cause lawyer from other types of lawyers is the advancement of the cause through the client to transform the status quo in service to a cause that is just as important, or more important, than the client.
In a 2004
American Bar Foundation
The American Bar Foundation (ABF) is a nonprofit research institute established in 1952 and located in Chicago, United States. The American Bar Foundation is located in the same building as Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law in do ...
essay, Thomas M. Hilbink outlined the "typolog
es of cause lawyering.
In this essay, cause lawyers are broken into three typologies: (1) Proceduralist Lawyering; (2) Elite-Vanguard Lawyering; and (3) Grassroots Lawyering.
Proceduralist lawyering is "marked by a belief in the separation of law and politics, and a belief that the legal system is essentially fair and just". Elite-Vanguard lawyering focuses on law as a superior form of politics that uses the law to render substantive justice in a way that will change substantive law and thereby change society. Grassroots lawyering, however, approaches law as "just" another form of politics, a venue that is corrupt, unjust, or unfair, and aims to achieve substantive social justice through using the law in combination of other social movements, but refraining from using the law as a primary method for social change.
History
What is now known as cause lawyering grew when the idea of "legal science", a 19th-century belief of legal objectivity in which law could be determined through the application of scientific principles and methodologies, was challenged. Until the late 19th century, the legal field worked to separate law and politics, precluding the idea that the law could be used as a force for political or social change.
The first organizations to break into cause lawyering and tear down the idea came into existence in the 20th century, the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is an American civil rights organization formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. B. Du&nbs ...
(NAACP) and the
American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is an American nonprofit civil rights organization founded in 1920. ACLU affiliates are active in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. The budget of the ACLU in 2024 was $383 million.
T ...
(ACLU).
Through intermixing political progressivism and the law, these two organizations paved the way for politically themed legal entities to use the law in a way that would advance the cause they represented.
In applying the broad encompassing cause lawyering definition from above, cause lawyering has existed as long as legal advocacy has existed. As long as an advocate has advocated for a client and against a perceived social or legal wrong, although the term was not coined until 1998, cause lawyering has been active. In the late 1800s it was
slavery
Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...
and state's rights, in the early 1900s it was women's suffrage and civil rights. In the 1960s and the non-profit law firm was born. The creation of non-profit law firms ushered in an era of progressive public interest firms modeled after already established like the NAACP and the ACLU to advance progressive causes from the environmental protection to consumer advocacy. These beginning organizations of cause lawyering, and the ones that followed scored major legal victories that have lasting effects to this day; see ''
Brown v. Board of Education
''Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka'', 347 U.S. 483 (1954), was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court that ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the ...
''
In the 1960s, the
Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a $25,000 (about $550,000 in 2023) gift from Edsel Ford. ...
began funding legal services programs as a component of anti-poverty programs helping fund some of the forerunners of legal services for indigent clients: Mobilization for Youth in New York, Action for Boston Community Development, the Legal Assistance Association in New Haven, and the United Planning Organization in Washington. While not identified as cause lawyers at the time, these early programs explicitly fit the mold of using the legal system to advance their cause.
Once the newly minted non-profit law firms were established as charitable organizations eligible for IRS tax-deduction, they began to advocate on behalf of disadvantaged and underrepresented groups, advancing the civil rights and poverty legal work from decades earlier. During the 1970s, feminist law firms began to emerge with the growing
Women's Movement
The feminist movement, also known as the women's movement, refers to a series of social movements and political campaigns for radical and liberal reforms on women's issues created by inequality between men and women. Such issues are women's ...
and with each newly emerging social movement, new cause lawyering organizations sprung up to complement them. By the mid to late 1970s the explosion of progressive cause lawyering organization was being followed by the creation of more conservative cause lawyering firms. The face of cause lawyering has ebbed and flowed just as political movements, social movements, and economic movements have from the 1970s through today. Major events, like the establishment of the
Legal Services Corporation
The Legal Services Corporation (LSC) is a publicly funded, 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation established by the United States Congress. It seeks to ensure equal access to justice under the law for all Americans by funding organizations providing c ...
and subsequent restriction; decisions in ''
Loving v. Virginia
''Loving v. Virginia'', 388 U.S. 1 (1967), was a landmark civil rights decision of the U.S. Supreme Court that ruled that the laws banning interracial marriage violate the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to ...
'', ''
Lawrence v. Texas
''Lawrence v. Texas'', 539 U.S. 558 (2003), is a List of landmark court decisions in the United States, landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, United States Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that U.S. state laws Sodom ...
'', ''
Roe v. Wade
''Roe v. Wade'', 410 U.S. 113 (1973),. was a List of landmark court decisions in the United States, landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the Constitution of the United States protected the right to have an ...
'', ''
District of Columbia v. Heller'', ''
Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission
''Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission'', 558 U.S. 310 (2010), is a List of landmark court decisions in the United States, landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, United States Supreme Court regarding Campaign fin ...
'', ''
National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius
''National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius'', 567 U.S. 519 (2012), is a landmark United States Supreme Court decision in which the Court upheld Congress's power to enact most provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care ...
'', ''
Shelby County v. Holder
''Shelby County v. Holder'', 570 U.S. 529 (2013), is a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States regarding the constitutionality of two provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965: Section 5, which requires certain states and ...
'', ''
United States v. Windsor
''United States v. Windsor'', 570 U.S. 744 (2013), is a List of landmark court decisions in the United States, landmark United States Supreme Court civil rights case concerning same-sex marriage in the United States, same-sex marriage. The Cou ...
'', and ''
Obergfell v. Hodges''; along with everyday victories and defeats of cause lawyers all over the United States have shaped our last one hundred years and will continue to shape the legal landscape to come. As Dean F. Michael Higginbotham said in his Keynote Speech at the
University of La Verne
The University of La Verne (ULV) is a private university in La Verne, California. Founded in 1891, the university is composed of the College of Arts & Sciences, College of Business & Public Management, the LaFetra College of Education, College o ...
Law Review Symposium in 2014:
"Make no mistake ... there is no better feeling in this life than to know that you have helped to improve the lives of those around you. Nice to make some money, nice to have material things, but there is nothing better than knowing that you have helped the impoverished, that you have helped the hungry, that you have helped the politically powerless, and that you have helped the undereducated to gain at least a semblance of dignity."
Public interest lawyering
Public interest law
Public interest law refers to legal practices undertaken to help poor, marginalized, or under-represented people, or to effect change in social policies in the public interest, on 'not for profit' terms ( ''pro bono publico''), often in the fields ...
is "the legal practice that advances
social justice
Social justice is justice in relation to the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society where individuals' rights are recognized and protected. In Western and Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has of ...
or other causes for the public good". In its most simple form,
public interest
In social science and economics, public interest is "the welfare or well-being of the general public" and society. While it has earlier philosophical roots and is considered to be at the core of democratic theories of government, often paired ...
is defined as "(1) the general welfare of the public that warrants recognition and protection" and "(2)
mething in which the public has a stake ..."
History
The public interest notation was first given to a group of lawyers in the 1960s who fought to address the social injustice that existed in American society. Throughout the late 20th century, many lawyers self-defined themselves as public interest lawyers in order to gain legitimacy and respect as they sought to change complex social, political, environmental, and educational problems. As a result of many attorney's desire to participate in public interest law, organizations, such as the
ACLU
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is an American nonprofit civil rights organization founded in 1920. ACLU affiliates are active in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. The budget of the ACLU in 2024 was $383 million.
...
and
NAACP
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is an American civil rights organization formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. B. Du&nbs ...
, were formed to develop a collaborative approach to addressing these societal problems. Today, public interest lawyering has expanded greatly to include free
legal aid
Legal aid is the provision of assistance to people who are unable to afford legal representation and access to the court system. Legal aid is regarded as central in providing access to justice by ensuring equality before the law, the right ...
groups, liberal and conservative public interest organizations, partisan environmental groups, and individual lawyers who choose to represent the underrepresented.
Definition and debate

With the increase in self-proclaimed public interest lawyers, the definition and categorization of public interest lawyering continues to be a debated topic. In attempt to narrow the categorization of public interest lawyering, many scholars and researchers have attempted to create a more precise definition of "public interest law". The
Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a $25,000 (about $550,000 in 2023) gift from Edsel Ford. ...
was one of the first groups to attempt to define public interest law as an "
tivity that (1) is undertaken by an organization in the voluntary sector; (2) provides fuller representation of underrepresented interests (would produce external benefits if successful); and (3) involves the use of law instruments, primarily litigation." Looking at the role of
public interest law
Public interest law refers to legal practices undertaken to help poor, marginalized, or under-represented people, or to effect change in social policies in the public interest, on 'not for profit' terms ( ''pro bono publico''), often in the fields ...
groups, Laura Beth Nielsen and Catherine Albiston defined public interest law groups as "organizations in the voluntary sector that employ at least one lawyer at least part time, and whose activities (1) seek to produce significant benefits for those who are external to the organization's participants, and (2) involve at least one adjudicatory strategy." Looking at public interest law as a more broad category, Scott Cummings suggests that public interest law is the legal means that advance the interest of disadvantaged people by way of challenging corporate or governmental policies and practices.
Other scholars have defined public interest laws not by what a lawyer does but by a lawyer's financial self-sacrifice. When discussing young lawyers who are influencing change, Karen Dillon stated that public interest lawyers are those who "have followed their hearts, not necessarily their wallets, into careers that they are convinced will make a difference in the world".
Pro bono
( English: 'for the public good'), usually shortened to , is a Latin phrase for professional work undertaken voluntarily and without payment. The term traditionally referred to provision of legal services by legal professionals for people who a ...
work of lawyers has become synonymous with the public good, and there is no debate that a majority of pro bono attorneys do contribute to the public good.
Public interest and politics
There are multiple ideological groups that unite on specific issues and work towards advances the causes that they believe are in the public interest. The early successes of the public interest movements prompted the emergence of public interest law firms, advocating on divisive political issues. In their discussion of cause lawyering, Scheingold and Sarat suggest that cause lawyering, "conveys a determination to take sides in political or moral struggle without making distinctions between worthy and unworthy cause". Today, public interest law firms are at the forefront of public interest groups and political advocacy organizations.
When partisan public interest organizations first gained popularity in the 1960s and 1970s it was the liberal groups that bound together to promote significant social change. Drawing from the strategies developed by previous groups to advance specific causes, like the NAACP, ACLU and
LDF, these public interest groups expanded their role to substantive law reform, litigation, and administrative and legislative advocacy. Because of this expansion in services offered, these groups began employing lawyers to create more lasting substantive change through legal reform.
In response to the success of liberal groups advancing their partisan agendas, conservatives began to adopt this type of organization and developed public interest groups of their own. Many of the first conservative public interest groups (the
National Right to Work Committee
The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, established in 1968, is a nonprofit organization that seeks to advance right-to-work laws in the United States.
History
National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation (NRTW) was founded in ...
,
National Right to Life Committee
The National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) is the oldest and largest national anti-abortion organization in the United States with affiliates in all 50 states and more than 3,000 local chapters nationwide.
Since the 1980s, NRLC has influenc ...
,
Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international instituti ...
), were created to advance very specific policy goals.
These groups do not necessarily advance the public's interest but are intertwined with corporations and lobbying efforts to advance the interest that benefit their clients and result in financial gain for them. Since their inception, the role in public interest groups in politics has increased drastically, with many of them funding
political action committee
In the United States, a political action committee (PAC) is a tax-exempt 527 organization that pools campaign contributions from members and donates those funds to campaigns for or against candidates, ballot initiatives, or legislation. The l ...
(PACs) with the purpose of advancing or inhibiting campaigns based on the candidate's stance on important issues. Public interest groups on both sides of the aisle have expanded their roles tremendously and can even be attributed to the divisive political arena that exist today. While their roles have expanded, their overall goals have not. Partisan public interest groups continue pursuing the causes that connect with their ideological beliefs and continue to have successes in advancing these interests.
Community economic development lawyering
Community economic development work includes building coalitions of interested parties to create social policies that improve affordable housing opportunities, increases access to affordable financing options, develops workforce skills, and generally produces more economic production within suffering urban and rural communities.
[Roger A. Clay and Susan R Jones, Building Healthy Communities, A guide to Community Economic Development for Advocates, Lawyers, and Policymakers, American Bar Association, 10, (2009)] In order to serve their client, CED lawyers are required to be proficient in many areas of the law which include: business, finance, environmental studies, real estate, architecture, public policy, education, employment and human resources, community organizing, organizational development, and change theory among other subjects.
History
Community economic development efforts have been traced back to the early 1900s to the
Tuskegee Institute
Tuskegee University (Tuskegee or TU; formerly known as the Tuskegee Institute) is a Private university, private, Historically black colleges and universities, historically black land-grant university in Tuskegee, Alabama, United States. It was f ...
. During that time
Booker T. Washington believed that the best way to advance African Americans interests was through encouraging economic self-sufficiency through encouraging job training and entrepreneurship. He believed that through economic self-sufficiency, hard work, and property ownership, African American communities would, on their own, create greater levels of wealth accumulation within the African community. To achieve his vision, Washington created vocational training programs and presided over the
National Business League with the goal of supporting African American business networks, products, and services.
In the 1960s, the Civil Rights Movement brought about changes to Community Economic Developments advocacy by focusing on grassroots programs in order to achieve greater levels of equality in poor urban and rural communities.
Groups like the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) is an African Americans, African-American civil rights organization based in Atlanta, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. SCLC is closely associated with its first president, Martin Luther King Jr., ...
and
Poor People's Movement began lobbying the Federal Government to create an economic bill of rights which demanded, among other things, improving the economic conditions within underrepresented urban and rural communities. In response, the Federal government created focused programs that targeted disadvantaged communities by providing increased education, job training, and family services.
Beginning with the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981, both state and federal governments began to reinvest in struggling urban and rural communities through the creation of
Enterprise Zone
An urban enterprise zone is an area in which policies to encourage economic growth and development are implemented. Urban enterprise zone policies generally offer tax concessions, infrastructure incentives, and reduced regulations to attract invest ...
s.
The purpose of the newly created Enterprise Zones was to stimulate job creation within urban communities through tax breaks to relocating companies, job training and ultimately economic growth. Despite their good intentions, empirical studies have concluded that unless the underlying conditions are ready for economic development, the net benefit of the economic zone program is minimal. According to these studies, the underlying conditions needed to improve an economic zones chances of success are: low unemployment, high levels of investment and suburbs.
Criticisms of CED
According to Audrey G. McFarlane, CED lawyering efforts have fallen short of their intended goals of building economic development within a community. McFarlane asserts that the economic transformation within Economic Zones has failed in three ways. First, the structure of the economic stimulus has been designed to benefit large corporations that generally do not require high paying jobs.
Second, the very fact that the programs are assigned to a geographical location further strengths the stigma associated with investing in "ghettos". Finally, simply providing a job does not address the entire problem facing a community and should include housing programs, workforce development, and food security among other things.
Organizations
A significant portion of cause lawyering is done through special interest groups or legal advocacy organizations. Cause lawyering groups are a type of public interest law organization (PILO).
These organizations are generally structured as 501(c)(3) nonprofits. These organizations are generally tied to specific
social movement
A social movement is either a loosely or carefully organized effort by a large group of people to achieve a particular goal, typically a Social issue, social or Political movement, political one. This may be to carry out a social change, or to re ...
s. For example, there are legal advocacy organizations for a wide range of causes such as
environmentalism
Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology, and social movement about supporting life, habitats, and surroundings. While environmentalism focuses more on the environmental and nature-related aspects of green ideology and politics, ecolog ...
,
racial justice
Anti-racism encompasses a range of ideas and political actions which are meant to counter racial prejudice, systemic racism, and the oppression of specific racial groups. Anti-racism is usually structured around conscious efforts and deliberate ...
,
feminism
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...
,
Evangelical Christianity
Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes evangelism, or the preaching and spreading of th ...
,
consumer
A consumer is a person or a group who intends to order, or use purchased goods, products, or services primarily for personal, social, family, household and similar needs, who is not directly related to entrepreneurial or business activities. ...
s, the poor, and
civil liberties
Civil liberties are guarantees and freedoms that governments commit not to abridge, either by constitution, legislation, or judicial interpretation, without due process. Though the scope of the term differs between countries, civil liberties of ...
. These organizations allow cause lawyers to pool time and resources to develop complex
litigation strategies for their causes. They often employ staff, have formal members, rely on grant or foundation funding, and even operate on a national scale.

These groups may use "
test cases
In software engineering, a test case is a specification of the inputs, execution conditions, testing procedure, and expected results that define a single test to be executed to achieve a particular software testing objective, such as to exercise ...
" to change the law to reach the group's political goal. For example, the
American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is an American nonprofit civil rights organization founded in 1920. ACLU affiliates are active in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. The budget of the ACLU in 2024 was $383 million.
T ...
(ACLU) famously defended
John Scopes
John Thomas Scopes (August 3, 1900 – October 21, 1970) was a teacher in Dayton, Tennessee, who was charged on May 5, 1925, with violating Tennessee's Butler Act, which prohibited the teaching of human evolution in Tennessee schools. He was trie ...
in the
Scopes Monkey Trial. In 1925, Tennessee passed the
Butler Act
The Butler Act was a 1925 Tennessee law prohibiting public school teachers from denying the book of Genesis account of humankind's origin. The law also prevented the teaching of the evolution of humans from what it referred to as lower orders ...
which outlawed the teaching of evolution. The ACLU offered to defend anyone arrested for teaching evolution in violation of the Butler Act. High school biology teacher. Scopes urged students to testify against him and he was eventually arrested under the Butler Act.
Clarence Darrow
Clarence Seward Darrow (; April 18, 1857 – March 13, 1938) was an American lawyer who became famous in the 19th century for high-profile representations of trade union causes, and in the 20th century for several criminal matters, including the ...
defended Scopes on behalf of the ACLU. Although Scopes lost at trial, the proceedings were heavily publicized and changed public opinion on the role of faith in public schools. Legal advocacy groups also educate the public and political leaders about their causes, sometimes through litigation.
Notable legal advocacy groups

While the ACLU concerns itself with a broad array of civil rights issues, the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is an American civil rights organization formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. B. Du&nbs ...
(NAACP) and
Southern Poverty Law Center
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit legal advocacy organization specializing in civil rights and public interest litigation. Based in Montgomery, Alabama, it is known for its legal cases against white ...
(SPLC) share a narrower focus on racial justice issues. Spearheaded by lawyer and future Supreme Court justice
Thurgood Marshall
Thoroughgood "Thurgood" Marshall (July 2, 1908 – January 24, 1993) was an American civil rights lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1967 until 1991. He was the Supreme C ...
, the NAACP used planned litigation to reverse the "
separate but equal
Separate but equal was a legal doctrine in United States constitutional law, according to which racial segregation did not necessarily violate the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which nominally guaranteed "equal protectio ...
" doctrine in ''
Brown v. Board of Education
''Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka'', 347 U.S. 483 (1954), was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court that ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the ...
''. Other prominent legal advocacy groups include the
Animal Legal Defense Fund
The Animal Legal Defense Fund is an American animal law advocacy organization. Its stated mission is to protect the lives and advance the interests of animals through the legal system. It accomplishes this by filing high-impact lawsuits to pr ...
,
Center for Constitutional Rights
The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR; formerly Law Center for Constitutional Rights) is an American progressive non-profit legal advocacy organization based in New York City. It was founded in 1966 by lawyers William Kunstler, Arthur Kin ...
,
Innocence Project
Innocence Project, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit legal organization that works to exonerate the wrongly convicted through DNA testing and other forms of post-conviction relief, as well as advocates for criminal justice reform to prevent futur ...
,
Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights under Law
The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, or simply the Lawyers' Committee, is an American civil rights organization founded in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy.
When the Lawyers' Committee was created, its existence w ...
,
Legal Momentum
Legal Momentum, founded in 1970, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and the nation's first and longest-serving legal advocacy group for women in the United States. Betty Friedan and Muriel Fox were its co-founders and Muriel Fox is an ongoing leader of th ...
, and the
Sylvia Rivera Law Project.
Legal advocacy organizations span the political spectrum. Originally, these groups tended to support politically liberal causes. Today, there are many politically conservative legal advocacy organizations, such as the
Liberty Counsel
Liberty Counsel is a 501(c)(3) Christian ministry that engages in strategic litigation to promote evangelical Christian values. Liberty Counsel was founded in 1989 by its chairman Mathew Staver and its president Anita L. Staver, who are attorney ...
. Many of such groups are called Christian conservative legal organizations (CCLOs). The
Alliance Defending Freedom
The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), formerly the Alliance Defense Fund, is an American conservative Christian legal advocacy group that works to expand Christian religious practices within public schools and in government. ADF is most known ...
and
American Center for Law and Justice are also prominent CCLOs. CCLOs tend to focus their litigation on
religious freedom
Freedom of religion or religious liberty, also known as freedom of religion or belief (FoRB), is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or community, in public or private, to manifest religion or belief in teaching, practice ...
, opposing same-sex marriage, and the right to life movement.
Criticisms of legal advocacy groups
Some grassroots organizations criticize national legal advocacy groups for dominating social movements. Legal advocacy groups may set the political agendas of social movements because legal advocacy groups generally have significantly more resources than grassroots activist groups. Additionally, legal advocacy groups may use a "top-down" approach to identifying and solving social problems without considering the actual needs of groups at the grassroots level.
Trends
United States trends
In 2004, Joel F. Handler conducted research that focused on how public interest law firms have changed over time. Citing a 1978 Weisbrod study, Handler surveyed other cause lawyers to determine how cause lawyering has changed over time. According to the study, cause lawyer organizations have become multi-issue driven as opposed to the single issue focus held in the past. In addition to expanding the scope of a public interest practice, Handler cites that this shift has also included the expansion into other non-legal advocacy which includes: researching, writing and, conducting education and outreach programs.
[Id.]
Due to the diversification of public interest organizations, the focus of most public interest organizations has become more diluted. Handler found that since 1975, the historically liberal public interest topics have, for the most part, experienced a decline in the percent of effort expended. Offsetting this decrease, Handler notes that growth has primarily been experienced within conservative public interest issues and addressing housing issues.
International trends
Cause lawyering has recently taken on a more international emphasis with lawyers working to produce social change most notably within the
People's Republic of China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
. Primarily focused on expanding the recognition of human rights, Chinese public interest lawyers have attempted to change the government by litigating high-profile cases and organizing public gatherings demanding government reform. In response, the Chinese government has attempted to silence the cause lawyers by limiting their efficacy through "law based" restrictions and "extra-legal" measures. According to the
Leitner Center
Fordham University School of Law is the law school of Fordham University. The school is located in Manhattan in New York City, and is one of eight ABA-approved law schools in that city.
According to Fordham University School of Law's ABA-r ...
, the
Chinese Communist Party
The Communist Party of China (CPC), also translated into English as Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Founded in 1921, the CCP emerged victorious in the ...
has been instrumental in passing laws that limit Chinese lawyers ability to effectively practice law by restricting access to clients, charging registration fees and coercing lawyers to drop unpopular cases in exchange for more favorable licensing treatment.
In addition to these "law based" restrictions, the Leitner Center has documented cases where lawyers have been detained and even disappeared after refusing to drop unpopular cases.
Cause lawyers in South American countries have begun to advocate more effectively by forming cause-lawyering networks. Covering a wide range of issues, these networks primarily focus on issues surrounding human rights and the environment.
Austin Sarat
Austin Sarat (born November 2, 1947) is an American political scientist who is William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science at Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts. He is also a Five College Fortieth Anniversary P ...
Stuart Scheingold, Latin American Cause Lawyering Networks in Cause Lawyering and the State in a Global Era, 307 (Oxford Press, 2001)
In
Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
cause lawyers are playing an increasing role in
migrants rights.
They have formed cause lawyering organization especially to protect the
human rights
Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...
of
asylum seekers
An asylum seeker is a person who leaves their country of residence, enters another country, and makes in that other country a formal application for the right of asylum according to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 14. A pers ...
and temporary
migrant workers
A migrant worker is a person who Human migration, migrates within a home country or outside it to pursue work. Migrant workers usually do not have an intention to stay permanently in the country or region in which they work.
Migrant workers ...
in the
Technical Intern Training Program.
See also
*
Private attorney general
A private attorney general or public interest lawyer is an informal term originating in common law jurisdictions for a private attorney who brings a lawsuit claiming it to be in the public interest, i.e., benefiting the general public and not jus ...
*
Public interest
In social science and economics, public interest is "the welfare or well-being of the general public" and society. While it has earlier philosophical roots and is considered to be at the core of democratic theories of government, often paired ...
*
Public interest law
Public interest law refers to legal practices undertaken to help poor, marginalized, or under-represented people, or to effect change in social policies in the public interest, on 'not for profit' terms ( ''pro bono publico''), often in the fields ...
*
Social change
Social change is the alteration of the social order of a society which may include changes in social institutions, social behaviours or social relations. Sustained at a larger scale, it may lead to social transformation or societal transformat ...
*
Social justice
Social justice is justice in relation to the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society where individuals' rights are recognized and protected. In Western and Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has of ...
*
The Hollow Hope
*
Impact litigation
References
Sources
* Ann Southworth, What Is Public Interest Law? Empirical Perspectives on an Old Question, 62 DePaul L. Rev. 493, 496 (2013)
* Anna-Maria Marshall, Daniel Crocker Hale, Cause Lawyering, 10 Ann. Rev. L. & Soc. Sci. 301, 301 (2014).
* Anne Bloom, Practice Style and Successful Legal Mobilization, Law & Contemp. Probs., Spring 2008.
* Avi Brisman, Reframing the Portrait of Lynne F. Stewart, 12 J. L. Society 1 (2011).
* Avi Brisman, The Criminalization of Peacemaking, Corporate Free Speech, and the Violence of Interpretation: New Challenges to Cause Lawyering, 14 CUNY L. Rev. 289 (2011).
* Barclay, Scott, and Shauna Fisher. "Cause lawyers in the first wave of same sex marriage litigation." ''Cause lawyers and social movements'' 84 (2006).
*
Benjamin W. Heineman, Jr., In Pursuit of the Public Interest the Genteel Populists (Book Review), 84 Yale L.J. 182, 183 (1974)
* Bettina E. Brownstein, Private Practice and Cause Lawyering: A Practical and Ethical Guide, 31 U. Ark. Little Rock L. Rev. 601 (2009).
*
Burton A. Weisbrod, Conceptual Perspective on the Public Interest: An Economic Analysis, in Public Interest Law: An Economic and Institutional Analysis 22
* Calmore, John O. "Call to Context: The Professional Challenges of Cause Lawyering at the Intersection of Race, Space, and Poverty, A." ''Fordham L. Rev.'' 67 (1998): 1927.
* Carol Rice Andrews, Ethical Limits on Civil Litigation Advocacy: A Historical Perspective, 63 Case W. Res. L. Rev. 381 (2012).
* Cause Lawyering in Transnational Perspective: National Conflict and Human Rights in Israel/Palestine, 31 Law & Soc'y Rev. 473 (1997).
* David Luban, The Moral Complexity of Cause Lawyers Within the State, 81 Fordham L. Rev. 705 (2012).
* Deborah J. Cantrell, Lawyers, Loyalty and Social Change, 89 Denv. U. L. Rev. 941 (2012).
* Deborah J. Cantrell, Sensational Reports: The Ethical Duty of Cause Lawyers to Be Competent in Public Advocacy, 30 Hamline L. Rev. 567, 568 (2007).
*
Deborah Rhode
Deborah Lynn Rhode (January 29, 1952January 8, 2021) was an American jurist. She was the Ernest W. McFarland Professor of Law at Stanford Law School and the nation's most frequently cited scholar in legal ethics. From her early days at Yale Law ...
, Public Interest Law: The Movement At Midlife, 60 Stan. L. Rev. 2027 (2008)
* Etienne, Margareth. 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
* Fu, Hualing, and
Richard Cullen. "Weiquan (rights protection) lawyering in an authoritarian state: Building a culture of public-interest lawyering." ''The China Journal'' 59 (2008); https://www.jstor.org/stable/20066382?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents.
* Harbaugh, William Henry (1973). ''Lawyer's Lawyer: the Life of John W. Davis''. Oxford University Press; Schlegal, J. (2009); ''Conflating the Good with the Public Good, Private Lawyers and the Public Interest: The Evolving Role of Pro Bono in the Legal Profession''. Oxford: University Press
* Harbaugh, William Henry (1973). ''Lawyer's Lawyer: the Life of John W. Davis''. Oxford University Press; Schlegal, J. (2009).
* Howard M. Erichson, Doing Good, Doing Well, 57 Vand. L. Rev. 2087, 2095 (2004) (stating the need to depart from a one-size fits all definition for public interest lawyering).
* Jeffrey Needle, Something to Believe in: Politics, Professionalism and Cause Lawyering Stuart A. Scheingold
Sarat Stanford University Press Www.sup.org 192 Pp., $35, Trial, April 2005.
* John Henry Schlegel, ''Conflating the Good with the Public Good'' in Private Lawyers and the Public Interest (Robert Granfield & Lynn Mather, eds. 2009)
* Jothie Rajah, Arun K. Thiruvengadam, Of Absences, Masks, and Exceptions: Cause Lawyering in Singapore, 31 Wis. Int'l L.J. 646 (2013).
* Karen Dillon & Jim Schroeder, The Public Sector 45: Forty-five Young Lawyers Outside the Private Sector Whose Vision and Commitment are Changing Lives, Am. Law., Jan./Feb. 1997, at 80.
* Klebanow, Diana, and Jonas, Franklin L. ''People's Lawyers: Crusaders for Justice in American History'', M.E. Sharpe (2003)
* Laura J. Hatcher, Fighting for Political Freedom: Comparative Studies of the Legal Complex and Political Liberalism. by Terence C. Halliday, Lucien Karpik, and Malcolm Feeley, Eds. Oxford, United Kingdom: Hart Publishing, 2007. Pp. x+508., 43 Law & Soc'y Rev. 231 (2009).
* Lea B. Vaughn, A Few Inconvenient Truths About Michael Crichton's State of Fear: Lawyers, Causes and Science, 20 Seton Hall J. Sports & Ent. L. 49 (2010)
* Margareth Etienne, The Ethics of Cause Lawyering: An Empirical Examination of Criminal Defense Lawyers As Cause Lawyers, 95 J. Crim. L. & Criminology 1195 (2005).
* Mark V. Tushnet, The NCAAP's Legal Strategy Against Segregated Education,1925-1950 at 105-137 (1987).
* Meili, Stephen. "Latin American cause-lawyering networks." ''Cause lawyering in the state in a global era'' (2001).
* Michael Ashley Stein et al., Cause Lawyering for People with Disabilities Law and the Contradictions of the Disability Rights Movement. by Samuel R. Bagenstos. New Haven & London: Yale Univ. Press. 2009. Pp. Xii, 228.., 123 Harv. L. Rev. 1658 (2010).
* Model Rules of Professional Conduct 6.1
* Patricia Goedde, From Dissidents to Institution-Builders: The Transformation of Public Interest Lawyers in South Korea, 4 E. Asia L. Rev. 63 (2009).
* Patrick J. Bumatay, Causes, Commitments, and Counsels: A Study of Political and Professional Obligations Among Bush Administration Lawyers, 31 J. Legal Prof. 1 (2007).
* Rosenberg, Gerald N. The Hollow Hope: Can Courts Bring About Social Change? Second Edition (American Politics and Political Economy Series (University Of Chicago Press, 2008)
* Russell G. Pearce, ''The Lawyer and Public Service,'' 9 Am. U. J. Gender Soc. Poly & L. 1 (2001).
*
Sarat, Austin, and Stuart A. Scheingold. ''Cause lawyers and social movements''. Stanford University Press, 2006.
*
Sarat, Austin, and Stuart A. Scheingold. The Worlds Cause Lawyers Make: Structure and Agency in Legal Practice (Stanford Law and Politics; 2005)
*
Sarat, Austin, and Stuart A. Scheingold. "The dynamics of cause lawyering: Constraints and opportunities." ''The worlds cause lawyers make: structure and agency in legal practice'' (2005).
* Scheingold and
Sarat, Something to Believe In: Politics, Professionalism, and Cause Lawyering (Chapters 1 & 2) (2004)
* Scott Barclay, Daniel Chomsky, How Do Cause Lawyers Decide When and Where to Litigate on Behalf of Their Cause?, 48 Law & Soc'y Rev. 595 (2014).
* Scott L. Cummings &
Deborah L. Rhode
Deborah Lynn Rhode (January 29, 1952January 8, 2021) was an American jurist. She was the Ernest W. McFarland Professor of Law at Stanford Law School and the nation's most frequently cited scholar in legal ethics. From her early days at Yale Law ...
, ''Public Interest Litigation: Insights From Theory and Practice,'' 36 Fordham Urban Law Journal (2009).
* Scott L. Cummings
The Internationalization of Public Interest Law, 57 Duke L.J. 891, 1034-35 (2008)* , and . "State-oriented and community-oriented lawyering for a cause." ''Cause Lawyering and the State in a Global Era''(2001): 287.
* Steven K. Berenson, Government Lawyer As Cause Lawyer: A Study of Three High Profile Government Lawsuits, 86 Denv. U. L. Rev. 457 (2009).
* Stuart A. Scheingold, Essay for the in-Print Symposium on the Myth of Moral Justice, 4 Cardozo Pub. L. Pol'y & Ethics J. 47 (2006).
* The Identity Crisis in Public Interest Law, 46 Duke L.J. 327
* The Plaintiff As Person: Cause Lawyering, Human Subject Research, and the Secret Agent Problem,119 Harv. L. Rev. 1510 (2006).
* Thomas M. Hilbink, You Know the Type...: Categories of Cause Lawyering, 29 Law & Soc. Inquiry 657 (2004)
* Waikeung Tam, Political Transition and the Rise of Cause Lawyering: The Case of Hong Kong, 35 Law & Soc. Inquiry 663 (2010)
External links
Steve Berenson, Government Lawyer as Cause Lawyer: A Study of Three High Profile Government Lawsuits
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