LGBT Family Lawyers and Same-Sex Marriage Recognition: How Legal Change Shapes Professional Identity and Practice

Lawyers who practice family law for LGBT clients are key players in the tenuous and evolving legal environment surrounding same-sex marriage recognition. Building on prior research on factors shaping the professional identities of lawyers generally, and activist lawyers specifically, I examine how p...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of homosexuality 2018-12, Vol.65 (14), p.2053-2075
Main Author: Baumle, Amanda K.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acknowledgment
Activism
Attorneys
cause lawyers
Community service
Creativity
Equality
Family law
Flexibility
Gays & lesbians
Gender identity
Group identity
Legal change
Legal identity
LGBTQ people
Membership
nonmarital law
Professional identity
Same sex marriage
Sexual orientation
Trust
Uncertainty
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Lawyers who practice family law for LGBT clients are key players in the tenuous and evolving legal environment surrounding same-sex marriage recognition. Building on prior research on factors shaping the professional identities of lawyers generally, and activist lawyers specifically, I examine how practice within a rapidly changing, patchwork legal environment shapes professional identity for this group of lawyers. I draw on interviews with 21 LGBT family lawyers to analyze how the unique features of LGBT family law shape their professional identities and practice, as well as their predictions about the development of the practice in a post-Obergefell world. Findings reveal that the professional identities and practice of LGBT family lawyers are shaped by uncertainty, characteristics of activist lawyering, community membership, and community service. Individual motivations and institutional forces work to generate a professional identity that is resilient and dynamic, characterized by skepticism and distrust coupled with flexibility and creativity. These features are likely to play a role in the evolution of the LGBT family lawyer professional identity post-marriage equality.
ISSN:0091-8369
1540-3602
DOI:10.1080/00918369.2017.1423215