The Lawyer as Gatekeeper: Ethical Guidelines for Representing a Client with a Social Change Agenda

THE NEED FOR SOCIAL CHANGE LAWYERING

Jane, ¹ a transgender woman, wants to sue East Carolina ² for discriminatory identification policies. Jane has little knowledge of the legal system and turns to a lawyer, Pat, for advice and representation. In their initial meeting, Jane states that her goal is to require the state to reform the process by which gender designations are changed on state identification and recorded in publicly accessible databases. East Carolina's state identification process currently requires its citizens to provide a birth certificate to confirm gender. To change the gender notation on the identification, East Carolina requires a detailed medical history of the person's gender transition and a letter from a doctor from within five years of the identification application verifying the applicant's current gender. These documents then become available on the Department of Motor Vehicles ("DMV") website as part of public record, with the exception of the medical records, although the website notes that the DMV has such records on file. Jane informs Pat that her ultimate goal would be to see transgender people afforded the same rights as other citizens and treated as equals by the rest of society.

While Pat is the only attorney in conservative East Carolina sympathetic to Jane's goals, she is not an advocate for transgender rights. However, she knows there is an active national transgender movement. Because East Carolina is a small state with a small transgender population that prefers anonymity, the national transgender movement has not been active within East Carolina. Pat takes on Jane's case, but must now decide how to proceed.

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