The Advocates, The Rainmaker... and Justice for All: Advocates as Legitimators of Crime

In liberal democracy advocates are being perceived as facilitators of the state's will and as neutral agents in the pursuit of justice. Based on my experience of conducting ethnographic research among advocates in the post-socialist Czech Republic I suggest to perceive advocates as agents acting against the idea of liberal democracy. In my paper I will show that advocates play a key role in legitimization the practices connoting with organized crime. The paper is based on author's empirical investigation on the ties between the field of advocacy and organized crime.