Year: 1992
Type: article
Abstract: This is a true story.It is the story of how the law punished a man for speaking about his legal rights; of how, after punishing him, it silenced him; of how, when he did speak, he was not heard.This pervasive and awful oppression was subtle and, in a real way, largely unintentional.I know because I was one of his oppressors.I was his lawyer.Earlier drafts of this Article began with the above somewhat melodramatic and self-flagellating words.Although I still hope that the story you are about to read is true, I no longer wish to begin by asserting its meaning.Instead, I strive to present this story in a form that you can interpret yourself, and in so doing, to exemplify a method for both studying and changing the practice of law.In a recent article, Lucie White points out that the word "client" derives from the Latin verb "cluere," meaning "to be named, hear oneself named."In ancient Rome, persons under the patronage of patricians were called "clientem" because they were known by the name of their patron.'White explains that because, even for the most enlightened modem day lawyers, "advocacy is a practice of speaking for [the client,] ... the advocate ... inevitably replays the drama of subordination in her own work." 2 The story told below shows how powerful the forces of such client subordination can be despite a lawyer's conscious intent and efforts, but the Article as a whole also strives to offer some hope against White's word "inevitably."I offer the metaphor of the lawyer as translator as a way of both understanding and altering the ways lawyers change the meanings of their clients' stories.By implying that law is a language foreign to the client, the metaphor suggests that the meaning of the client's story will "inevitably" be transformed through the lawyer's representation; no sentence can be perfectly translated from one language to another.3 Yet if one feels a sense of loss in speaking through a translator, there can also be something gained. 1
Author: Clark D. Cunningham
Language: English
Subfield: Law
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1583477507