Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2019
ISSN
8756-0801
Publisher
Washington University School of Law
Language
en-US
Abstract
Social justice lawyers come to the profession intending to make a difference through the instruments of law. And gloriously, they often make a difference in people’s lives for the better. They make our world a more just, compassionate, and tolerant place. But there is no denying that, in poverty law practice, legal success can be illusive, ephemeral, or perhaps a mirage. How does that lawyer feel when the legal remedies at her disposal, even if “successful,” fail to mitigate the injustices suffered by her clients? Are there definitions of professional satisfaction and success that are enduring, even if legal success or social justice is not attainable? This article comprises a set of essays that explore the lawyer’s capacity to persevere in the face of legal loss that is so regular that pessimism, indifference, and exhaustion set in. Our quest is to describe the contours of a lawyer’s role that gives the poverty lawyer professional identity and purpose, despite repeated loss. That role is the accompagnateur. Our hypothesis: a lawyer’s internalization of her role as accompagnateur to her clients can gird and enable her to sustain motivation to fight the good fight. Namely, the first or foundational professional value is to accompany her client—stand beside, stand up for, and give respect and voice to the client’s story—irrespective of victory. In so doing, the lawyer’s deepest source of professional identity and purpose is in accompanying the client well. It is more about serving as an accompagnateur than it is about legal victories and vanquishing injustice, per se. That sounds harsh. Our thesis is that accompaniment, done well, makes one a better lawyer for her client and simultaneously nourishes the lawyer enough to withstand inevitable losses. This collection of writings from students, a veteran public interest lawyer, and practice faculty (clinic and field placement) explore aspects of the accompaniment role for lawyers working on behalf of clients from marginalized communities, with a special focus on individual representation. The collection traces an arc of a career: from the vantage of a decades-long career of a public interest lawyer encrusted with ennui to the perspectives of the wide-eyed law students energized and empowered by their ability to use newly acquired legal skills to serve their clients. Other essays in the collection speak to a set of skills that help the practitioner and law student to be client-effective and personally resilient through the accompagnateur role.
Recommended Citation
Margaret Reuter, Stephen A. Rosenbaum & Danielle Pelfrey Duryea,
Attorney as Accompagnateur: Resilient Lawyering When Victory is Uncertain or Nearly Impossible
,
59
Washington University Journal of Law and Policy
107
(2019).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.bu.edu/faculty_scholarship/646
Please note the file available on SSRN may not be the final published version of this work.
