Government lawyers: technicians, policy shapers and organisational brakes

Government lawyers have been rather neglected by scholars interested in the workings of the legal profession and the role of professional groups in contemporary society. This is surprising given the potential for them to influence the internal workings of an increasingly legalistic and centralised state. This article aims to partly fill this gap by looking at the way that lawyers employed by the government and the administrators they work with talk about their jobs. It draws on the findings of a large-scale empirical study of government lawyers in seven departments, funded by the ESRC and undertaken by Philip Lewis between 2002–2003. By looking at lawyers in bureaucracies the interviews conducted revealed much about the work that government lawyers do, their relationship with other civil servants and the subtle influences on policy that they are able to exert.