Abstract
Although legal services are thought to be the domain of lawyers, those employed in many other occupations do law-related work, some incidental to other work and some, here called para-lawyers, as the sole focus of what they do. Para-lawyers have long existed, but they are becoming more visible as providers of legal services with the development of systems for licensing and regulating para-lawyers. Research shows that para-lawyers can be effective providers of a range of legal services, and that under some circumstances they can be more effective than fully qualified lawyers. Understanding the phenomenon of para-lawyers raises issues related to closure, deprofessionalization, postprofessionalism, and gender.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences: Second Edition |
| Publisher | Elsevier Inc. |
| Pages | 482-485 |
| Number of pages | 4 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9780080970875 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9780080970868 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Mar 26 2015 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2015 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved.
Keywords
- Deprofessionalization
- Lawyers
- Legal services
- Para-professions
- Professions
- Social closure
- Sociology of the professions