Deontology and symbolic capital in Portuguese contemporary advocacy

Abstract

Bearing on a study about young people that enter Portuguese advocacy, this article goes back to a topic far from contemporary sociology – professional groups’ ethic-deontology. Its standpoint is that ethic-deontological arguments allow young lawyers embracing the profession through the “liberal prototype” to build up professional aspirations that favor both a “liberal exercise” and a positive evaluation of their professional situation. This gives rise to a will to acquire symbolic capital in a context of young lawyers in major law firms. It is the ethic-deontological “cut” that prevents the latter, which move away from the liberal model, from having an absolute edge.