Robert Sauté recounts history and institutions of U.S. public interest law in his book For the Poor and Disenfranchised

Robert Sauté’s study explores over a century of public interest representations, pro bono legal work, and litigation groups such as the ACLU and NAACP’s Inc. Fund from a social science perspective of history and institutional analysis.

For the Poor and Disenfranchised is a sociological account of the public interest bar in the United States. It traces how the legal profession delivered on the legal system’s promise of equal justice for all by making the legal system available to all and a vehicle for substantive justice, exploring political mobilization, entrepreneurial lawyering, and pro bono publico representation.

“In this dramatic and detailed account, Robert Sauté documents the establishment and evolution of the public interest bar, particularly its struggles to provide zealous advocacy for its clients. Through meticulous historical research in case studies of the New York Legal Aid Society, NAACP, ACLU, and Legal Services Corporation, Sauté’s book analyzes how access to the legal system has been affected by cultural and structural changes in society and in American politics. His chapter on pro bono in large firms reveals how a new generation of elite lawyers defines its commitment to professionalism and the poor.”
— Cynthia Fuchs Epstein
Distinguished Professor
Graduate Center, CUNY
Author, Women in Law

“Sauté’s book is a subtle and fascinating history of the development of public interest and poverty law in the United States, analyzing how the legal profession has responded to the needs of the poor and disenfranchised over time. Although there have been many advances in the ways those needs are met, Sauté closely examines the influence of the market, social movements and other factors and suggests that those responses have been inadequate, particularly in light of a legal system moving increasingly to the right.”
— Mark Potok
Senior Fellow
Southern Poverty Law Center

This is a compelling addition to the Dissertation Series from Quid Pro, authored by Robert Saute. The author holds a PhD in sociology from CUNY’s Graduate Center. He currently teaches in the Labor and Employment Relations program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is an editor, and lives in New York City.

Available in paperback edition: at such retailers as Amazon.com, our QP eStore page (fulfilled securely by Amazon), Barnes & Noble, BooksAMillion, YBP Library Services, and Ingram.

Available in 2016 library-quality hardcover edition: see it at Amazon, B&N, BAM!, YBP, Ingram catalog, and many other booksellers.

Also available in leading digital formats:

Kindle edition, at Amazon.

Nook edition, at Barnes & Noble.

At Apple iBooks and iTunes (see it on iPad and iPhone bookstores; previewed online).

At Google Play and Google Books.

And at Smashwords and Kobobooks in ePUB format.

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Cataloging: For the Poor and Disenfranchised: An Institutional and Historical Analysis of American Public Interest Law, 1876-1990
Author:  Robert Sauté

ISBN 978-1-61027-281-0 (paperback); list price US $29.99
ISBN 978-1-61027=796-9 (hardcover); list price US $42.99
ISBN 978-1-61027-282-7 (ebook); list price $9.99
ASIN B00R54MUV6 (Kindle edition); list $9.99

Publication date: Dec. 18, 2014 (hardcover republication May 20, 2016)
Page count: 170 pp.