lawyering

Plurallawyerings

1. 1
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The practice of law as a profession; the day-to-day work of being a lawyer.

   Skilled lawyering won the case despite the thin evidence.

   He left lawyering behind to take a seat on the bench.

   Similaradvocacy, law

   Note

   Usually a mass noun for the craft itself, as in skilled lawyering, but it also counts. In the plural it shifts from the profession to its separate moves, and it can carry scorn: the Correspondence of Daniel O'Connell (1888) dismisses a scribe's "paltry lawyerings." Use the uncountable form for the work and the plural for particular maneuvers.

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of lawyer.

   After lawyering for two decades, she moved into local politics.

   The firm rewarded aggressive lawyering with rapid promotions.

   Note

   The verb behind this form usually takes no object: she spent years lawyering. It can mean practicing law, doing a lawyer's work, or simply arguing legalistically. One informal use does take an object: to lawyer someone is to press them with questions until they admit something. As a gerund it sits very close to the noun for the profession, but this form still behaves like a verb and accepts an adverb, as in lawyering carefully.

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