Pamela A. Jordan, Defending Rights in Russia: Lawyers, the State and Legal Reform in the Post-Soviet Era. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2005.

This study examines the transformation of the Russian bar (advokatura) after the collapse of the Soviet Union, focusing on how practicing lawyers and advocates redefined their professional identity and institutional role during democratic transition. Using a historical institutionalist framework and comparative analysis, the author argues that the post-Soviet advokatura achieved greater, though incomplete, autonomy from the state. Advocates established new bar associations and law offices, expanded their strategies for defending clients’ rights, and positioned themselves as contributors to legal reform.

In this transitional moment, lawyers served as intermediary actors between state institutions and civil society, redistributing social and political power in incremental ways. Their work supported the development of civil society and the strengthening of human rights protections. However, the study cautions that these gains remain fragile. The consolidation of authoritarian power under the Putin regime, and its disregard for due process, poses a significant threat to the autonomy and rights-protecting role that advocates began to cultivate. The case illustrates how lawyers can advance democratization during regime change, yet remain vulnerable to political retrogression.