Introduction : Rita's case and other law stories / Gary Bellow and Martha Minow -- Welfare stories / Anthony V. Alfieri -- Maintaining the status quo : institutional obstacles in a child custody dispute / Lenora M. Lapidus -- "We are all we've got" : building a retiree movement in Youngstown, Ohio / Alice and Staughton Lynd -- What's wrong with these pictures? : the story of the Hammer Museum litigation / Nell Minow -- Public defender, public friend : searching for the "best interests" of juvenile offenders / Charles Ogletree -- On representing a victim of crime -- / Abbe Smith -- Daily log of independent fieldwork / Lynne Weaver -- On the vision and practice of participation in Project Head Start / Lucie E. White -- Afterword : constancies and commonalities in this volume's law stories / Gary Bellow and Martha Minnow