8:30-10:15 a.m.
Section on Law and the Humanities

• Daniel M. Filler, The University of Alabama, Chair
• Robin Paul Malloy, Syracuse University, Program Chair

Moderator:
Robin Paul Malloy, Syracuse University

Speakers:

• John Brigham, Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts
• Christine Alice Corcos, Louisiana State University
• Philip N. Meyer, Vermont Law School

In this session, participants explore the cultural construction of the American lawyer as an instrument and facilitator of market power. Participants will focus, in particular, on images of lawyers, including representations of the "Wall Street Lawyer," the "Philadelphia Lawyer," the "L.A. Suit," and the "transnational carpetbagger," among others. We will begin by considering the high profile of lawyers in the recent spate of corporate implosions. We will then explore the construction of American lawyers in a number of cultural sites. We consider both fictional and non-fictional characterizations of women lawyers in traditional corporate settings and discover that heroism is more frequently achieved, for women, when working as outsider activists, rather than as insiders fighting for change. We explore lawyer self-identity through the first-person narratives of litigation attorneys in Lawrence Joseph's book Lawyerland, and Russell Banks's novel The Sweet Hereafter. Calling on the work of Richard Sherwin, Austin Sarat, and Christine Harrington, among others, we study current television and film, analyzing the ways in which lawyers negotiate law, as well as the structures of and technologies of power. By evaluating these images in a variety of contexts, the participants seek a better understanding of the role of lawyers as Counselors at Law, and as conveyors of values and meanings throughout our global village.

Business Meeting at Program Conclusion