Still standing accused: addressing the gap between work and talk in firms of criminal defence lawyers

This paper presents findings from an ethnographic study investigating the everyday reality of legally aided criminal defence. This is the largest survey of its kind for fifteen years since two competing accounts clashed in this journal. In order to update understanding of this branch of the profession, participant observation and formal interviews are utilised to elucidate something of the health of the lawyer–client relationship as it currently stands. The results challenge the prospect of achieving access to criminal justice, as lawyers degrade their clients. However, this is deemed to be caused by a misalignment of values that might be rectified if lawyers are encouraged to become more ethically self-aware.