Judith A. McMorrow

Developing Interprofessional Community in Collaborative Settings: Understanding and Refining the Lawyer’s Role

Law is now infused into every aspect of our lives, making the input of lawyers often a necessity. Whether in business, social service, educational or nonprofit settings, the legal perspective may be necessary to understand the legal dimensions of an issue, to maneuver the web of government regulation that may apply, or to avoid claims by or against others that may arise. The converse is also true; lawyers increasingly need non-legal perspectives to resolve issues that arise in a legal setting. Eviction is not just a legal problem, but often requires an array of social services to keep a family intact in a home. Divorce has implications beyond the severing of a legal relationship. Some suggest that this contextualization of practice is a return to an earlier style of lawyering (Kerper, 1998). Whether an old or new movement, lawyers in the 1990s increasingly recognize that problems are not just “legal” or “political” or “social” or “personal,” but are the result of a range of forces that require a range of responses. As a result of this interdependency, lawyers and nonlawyers increasingly share the work of resolving issues with legal dimensions.