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100			_aKwong, Ying-ho _956757
245			_aThe legal profession in battle: Cause lawyers versus stateembedded lawyers in Hong Kong’s democratization
260			_aSocial and Legal Studies
300			_a34(4), Aug, 2025: p.580-601
520			_aThe existing literature has long recognized that cause lawyers play important roles in fighting for political justice. However, the implications of how the state responds to these lawyers have yet to be comprehensively explored. This article argues that the state in Hong Kong has co-opted “state-embedded lawyers” against cause lawyers for the counter-mobilizing of public opinion. Thus, both cause lawyers and state-embedded lawyers engage in political battles with polarized objectives, either for democratic reform or regime stability. Theoretically, this paper contributes to analyzing the state's response to cause lawyering and its counter-mobilization actions by developing state-embedded lawyers. Empirically, the case of Hong Kong helps enrich the existing literature by exploring the confrontational relations within polarized legal professions. The conclusion shows that such tensions can stimulate further polarization with different business paths between lawyers, consumption patterns among citizens and understanding of the rule of law and responses from mainland China.- Reproduced https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/09646639241279975
650			_aCause lawyers, State embedded lawyers, Legal profession, Democratization, Hong Kong. _956758
773			_aSocial and Legal Studies
942			_cAR