This paper begins from the assumption that in order to understand political development in sub-Saharan Africa we must locate our analysis at the intersection of the state and civil society. One way to do this is through the lens of a profession. Analyzing the internal dynamics of a profession allows us to cut-across conceptual spaces. One profession that captures the inside-outside state tension particularly well is the law. At the collective level lawyers simultaneously constitute and oppose the state. At the individual level a single lawyer may move back and forth between the state and the private sector several times over the course of his or her career. This paper examines the internal dynamics of the legal profession and lawyers' engagement with the African state in two southern African countries: Botswana and Malawi. African lawyers have played a central role in building and sustaining the African state since the colonial period. But what role does the contemporary lawyer have in democratizing the African state? How is the African lawyer able to maintain autonomy, engage in collective action, manipulate informal networks and protect civic space while maintaining the sense of apolitical morality so essential to their legal authority? Based on qualitative field research in Botswana and Malawi, this paper finds that historical patterns of elite lawyer movement in and out of the state, law society's historical paths of activism, and evolving trends in the legal marketplace shape the relationship between African lawyers and the state
