Emotionsarbete som professionell praktik : Advokaten som klientens guide genom brottmålsprocessen

Sammanfattning: Defense lawyers are portrayed as performing non-emotional work and their education does not train them for the social dimensions of handling clients and present in court. Despite this general picture of the legal profession, studies show that the work performed by lawyers comprises comprehensive emotion work. This study is based on ten semi-structured interviews and complementary observations of court hearings with criminal defense lawyers with variation in sex, age and work experiences. The main findings show that lawyers submit to the legal emotional regime characterized by a distance to emotions in court, but that the preparation for such a presentation requires substantial emotion work with the client before and after the court hearing. Client contact can be seen as a guided tour through the legal process undertaken by the lawyer with a focus on three aspects: (1) to dampen distress, (2) to prepare, produce and represent the client's expressions of emotion in court, and (3) to turn the everyday narrative of the event into legal codes, and vice versa. Empathy stands out an important tool in the emotion work performed by lawyers. Furthermore, the performance of objectivity is constructed socially through emotion work via the concept of professionalism.