If you believe that restorative justice is an effective way to reduce recidivism, it’s essential that a court act as a meeting place between a defendant and their community. For this reason, you want a defendant’s legal representation to be a peer so there is a shared understanding of the particularities of their community.
I couldn't agree with this more, but it is mostly relevant to criminal cases and I think that almost all of the commenters here are thinking about civil cases.
