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Practice What You Preach: Power, Paternalism, And The Christian Lawyer For The Poor, Melanie D. Acevedo

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This Essay will focus on the approach a Christian poverty lawyer can take to answering these questions. This Essay will argue that because a lawyer's actions are ultimately based on what she believes about herself and her place in the world, the Christian lawyer will begin her move away from paternalism and towards power-sharing. She will do this by embracing a Christian self-understanding and integrating that understanding into her work in the most significant ways possible. Further, when she looks at power itself through a biblical lens, the Christian poverty lawyer sees a framework for practice that is radically different …