ABSTRACT
This book begins with a short description of the emotional and interactional demands placed on defence lawyers, introducing the themes to be addressed before moving on to an overview of the research field of law and emotion. The unique legal role of defence lawyers is then explored in more detail before exploring how they are perceived by others. I show, for instance, that they have close client contact – including contact with clients whom they may dislike, they work with gruesome images and terrible crimes, and they may face moral suspicion. Also, lawyers lose almost all the time. All of this demands emotion work and facework – both the lawyer’s own emotions and face, but also the face and emotions of others in order to accomplish their role and convey loyalty. I link this to the particular context of Sweden which is distinct in its subtlety of performances. I conclude by introducing the empirical material and a brief methodological discussion regarding the observation of loyalty and the analysis of emotion talk. The key findings and aims of the book conclude this first chapter.
