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Plausibility check: Lawyer of the Occult

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Rechan:
I'm considering writing some urban fantasy, and what I want to write about is a main character who is not the badass. Not the guy with the kickass powers. He is the Useful Side Character, with a useful but not flashy skillset. Like a precognitive, or someone who is good at information gathering (like Morty the Ectomancer from The Dresden Files). Who... inadvertently gets dragged into the mess.

So I hit on an idea: a lawyer. Think someone who knows the Unseelie Acccords forwards and backwards, who knows the rules and politics that govern within the various Powers' organizations (the rules that faeries abide by among faeries or rules that members of the Red Court abides by within the Red Court).

The wall that I hit is: why would this person be needed?

Take the Accords as an example. If you're a signer (or a representative of the signer), then you don't need a lawyer; you speak for yourself, and you should understand how the Accords pertains to you and what you can do. If you're NOT a signer, then you don't really qualify. And if you're dealing within your own organization, why involve a third party?

Not to mention how much a third party knowing your system could be a threat.

Even if the character serves as a negotiator's role, or has the ability to Bind oaths/deals/agreements (think how the faerie have power over someone who owes them, now apply that to any who seek him out) in a form of agreed-to Geas, I still think that this character would not have a lot of Use in the supernatural world.

Does my idea have merit? Am I not seeing the forest for the trees? How do I make this idea work, or am I right in second guessing it? Help!

snowbank:
Kelley Armstrong has a lawyer character, Lucas Cortez, who does both human and supernatural law. He's a sorcerer by birth and heir to the strongest Cabal in the the U.S., but he sees the Cabals as evil and represents supes who have legal issues. His wife is a witch.

Rechan:

--- Quote from: snowbound on July 30, 2010, 02:58:31 AM ---Kelley Armstrong has a lawyer character, Lucas Cortez, who does both human and supernatural law. He's a sorcerer by birth and heir to the strongest Cabal in the the U.S., but he sees the Cabals as evil and represents supes who have legal issues. His wife is a witch.
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I read the first story of that. Although I think he just deals with Cabal law, right?

The supernatural entities with legal issues, are they normal or supernatural law issues?

I really do like how the DF handles things, but as far as Law goes there, it's more like international law, with each Power being a nation unto itself. The Unseelie Accords are just basically treaties. So not a lot of room. So a body of Law governing the supernatural world beyond that... I don't know. That's bringing a lot of different things into it. A difference that might Hamper badasses going to town on each other.

snowbank:
I think it would depend on how your society was set up. If the laws were respected, or if might made right. In Armstrong's world, the supernatural society generally functions similarly to the human society. In a less structured environment, well, a bigger gun is a good argument also.  ;)

Rechan:

--- Quote from: snowbound on July 30, 2010, 04:10:08 AM ---I think it would depend on how your society was set up. If the laws were respected, or if might made right. In Armstrong's world, the supernatural society generally functions similarly to the human society. In a less structured environment, well, a bigger gun is a good argument also.  ;)


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In this case I'm thinking it's somewhere in the middle.

In all honesty I have no idea what I'm writing. As said, it just struck me as an interesting character - especially as one who operates as a side character, even if he's the main. I just know nothing about law. Or even the setting at this stage.

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