Community Lawyering
The concept of Community Lawyering revolves around the belief that the traditional unilateral lawyering model does not serve the best interests of the underrepresented community at large. The opportunity (necessity) for Community Lawyering arises from the fact that without an organized, fluid, and community centric advocacy campaign the community's interests and best efforts at sustainable change will lack the momentum necessary to succeed. Community lawyers utilize their legal skills to further the agenda of the community by empowering the community rather than legally representing the group.
Community empowerment is a multi-step process aimed at galvanizing the constituency in order to create a well organized movement whose “power in numbers” can effect or demand change. In the Community Lawyering model all power derives directly from relationships. For this paradigm to succeed the relationships must be deeper than traditional public relationships. Community members must fundamentally understand what motivates their peers, the self-interest at stake, the skill sets at their disposal, and which elements of their agenda are most deeply felt and widely shared within their constituency. Once these relationships have been developed between the community leaders and the grassroots institutions involved, a shared vision of the issues and potential solutions can be developed.
With a unified community agenda the community leaders can utilize the community lawyer as a resource, rather than a figurehead, to further their agenda. At this stage the community lawyer exploits the power and influence available within the group to strategically promote the group through communication, media, organizational development, political activity, networking, coalition building, advocacy, education, and unilateral action.
The potential uses of Community Lawyering are far reaching and include the development of affordable housing initiatives, urban development plans, public works project, and health care systems.
