Advocates'' profession as a community of practice

Abstract

The article presents the study of the professional community of Russian advocates. Nowadays, advocates came closest to the classical notion of the profession compared to other groups of lawyers in Russia. They have their own code of ethics, disciplinary court, qualification exams, initiation rituals, as well as its corporate body - a professional association. But do all these elements create a single professional community of advocates? The article attempts to look at the advocates' profession in terms of practices not the trappings. In sociology of professions, this change of paradigm is associated with the concept of «community of practice». From this point of view, the advocates' community is formed by shared interests, practical experience and unspoken rules of conducting cases. The key skill constituting the advocates' profession is an oral statement to the court. On the one hand, this skill draws the line between a professional and a lay person. Drafting of legal documents (at least, typical) ceases to be the lawyers' prerogative since now everyone can find a plenty of templates online. On the other hand, this skill distinguishes advocates from other lawyers, who work mainly with documents - for example, from investigators or in-house lawyers. However, the differences between advocates and other legal representatives will be not so noticeable. Basically, their work practices in courts are very similar. Ordinary citizens often do not see any differences between advocates and unlicensed litigators. Nevertheless, demarcation lines are extremely important as a mean of the professional identity construction. The article focuses on the symbolic boundaries by which modern advocates differentiate themselves from other groups of legal profession.