THE PHENOMENON OF THE RADICAL LAWYER

This paper adopts an ethnomethodological approach towards the study of radicalism in legal professional practice; focusing on the ways in wh ich radicalism was produced, displayed and exhibited in the talk and a ctions of a small firm of solicitors situated in one of the inner city areas of a large city in northern England. Three aspects of radicalis m are examined: radicalism as a public phenomenon; radicalism as a con testable phenomenon; and radicalism as a moral framework. It is sugges ted that this analytic approach has implications for the way we might study other forms of contemporary radicalism, and for the way in which radicals in the academy theorise and understand the world of the radi cal lawyer.