Orientations in lawyer-client interviews

Abstract

The lawyer-client interview is a professional lay encounter which frequently exemplifies two competing world views and two associated and competing discourses. The discourse of clients reflects a 'real world' perspective in which specific everyday events and relationships predominate; the discourse of lawyers is motivated by the ' legal world' perspective and its imperative that events and behaviour must be viewed in terms of the principles, rules and categories of the legal system. This inherently inter-discursive interaction places heavy communicative demands on both parties, particularly the lawyer, if the information and advice that s/he provides is to be understood by the client. In this article we argue that while the textualizations of lawyers' rule and category discourse are typically nominal , general and non-evaluative, lawyers draw from a repertoire of frequently inter-discursive strategies to inform their clients of appropriate legal norms and to persuade them to adopt legally prudent and acceptable behaviour.