'I've lost the plot': an everyday story of legal aid lawyers |
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Authors: | Hilary Sommerlad |
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Institution: | Department of Law, Leeds Metropolitan University, Leeds, UK |
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Abstract: | This paper examines the impact on a specific group of solicitors in the United Kingdom of recent changes in the delivery of legal services. These changes are seen as a form of the New Public Management (NPM), and the paper explores the proposition that NPM is producing a public sector characterized by high output but low morale, through an analysis of qualitative data from a group of 'political' legal aid practitioners. The data is seen to support the high-output/low-morale thesis, and the paper argues that one effect therefore of legal aid reform may be to damage the 'political' lawyer's project of empowering the client and countering social injustice. |
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