Lawyers and Movements

A sweeping and critical engagement with the legal, political science, and sociology literatures on social movements and law, Lawyers and Movements reveals the synergies and disconnects among theories of law and social change. Scott Cummings develops a new theoretical framework that spans several institutional contexts to offer a richer account of how lawyers participate in social movements."" -Catherine Albiston, University of California, Berkeley Scott Cummings has written a pathbreaking book on the changing roles of lawyers in social movement struggles. Cummings develops an 'integrated' macro-theory to match the organizationally, tactically, and institutionally 'integrated' activist lawyering practices in the post-Brown civil rights era. His analysis is remarkably erudite, analytically sophisticated, historically astute, empirically grounded, and highly original. The book is mandatory reading for anyone interested in contemporary lawyering for progressive social change."" -Michael McCann, University of Washington While legal strategies are certainly important for social movements, mainstream research in the field has rarely addressed in depth their modes of interventions and the legal theorization as well as the practices behind them. This precious book offers a very rich, systematic and innovative approach to lawyers' roles in social movement advocacy, locating them within transformations in the political economy as well as the development of the profession."" -Donatella della Porta, Scuola Normale Superiore