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Law and Social Relations: Vocabularies of Motive in Lawyer/Client Interaction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2024

Austin Sarat  and
William L. F. Felstiner
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Abstract

Drawing on C. Wright Mills' analysis of vocabularies of motive, this paper examines the ways lawyers and clients interpret and give meaning to the social behavior involved in the legal process of divorce. Based on observation of 115 law office conferences, the paper describes discussions between lawyers and clients concerning marriage failure, problems in the legal process, and planning strategy. It shows how lawyers and clients bring different agendas and views of the social world to these conversations. Those differences are considered part of the context for understanding the way professional authority is exercised and resisted. Clients reconstruct the past and explain their own behavior as well as the actions of their spouses. Lawyers avoid being drawn into that reconstruction. Their interpretive work explains the way the divorce process works and how it shapes the actions of divorcing spouses. The paper analyzes the predicaments created by these interpretations of reality and the consequences that flow from them.

Type
Research Article
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 22 , Issue 4: Special Issue: Law and Ideology , 1988 , pp. 737 - 769
Copyright
Copyright © 1988 The Law and Society Association

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Footnotes

We are grateful to Kathy Hall and Jenny Friedman for their invaluable assistance and to John Brigham, Patty Ewick, Christine Harrington, Susan Silbey, Yves Dezalay, John Forrester, Barbara Yngvesson, two anonymous reviewers, and the Amherst Seminar on Legal Ideology and Legal Process for their helpful comments. This research was supported by the National Science Foundation under grants SES-810483 and SES-8510422, the American Bar Foundation, and the Amherst College Faculty Research Fund.

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