Lawyers for the Poor in Transition: Involvement, Reform, and the Turnover Problem in the Legal Services Program

Abstract

Lawyers in the federally funded Legal Services program for the poor have distinguished themselves from their predecessors in privately funded Legal Aid societies by discounting long-range career perspectives while expecting work to be involving. In the first part of this paper I analyze how the social status of poor people creates pressures toward routine treatment, and how reform litigation contributes to the Legal Services lawyer's involvement. In the second part I use this career analysis to understand the dilemmas currently confronting Legal Services leadership as it addresses problems of staff turnover. Recalling the social movement origins of the Legal Services program, I treat the turnover problem as a challenge to the institution to define its historical role. The dilemmas confronting institutional leadership in responding to turnover reflect tensions experienced by all reform organizations as the social movements initially supporting them deteriorate.

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