Participants in the mental disability/justice system who seek to effectuate any meaningful change on behalf of mentally disabled persons must focus on the critical role of counsel for several overlapping and interrelated reasons. First, legal rights are not necessarily self-executing. Secondly, the myth of the availability of adequate counsel is essentially illusory. Further, the presence of structured counsel, namely, lawyers supported by mental health professionals, serves an important internal educative function by sensitizing all participants in the mental disability trial process, including judges, to the social, cultural, and political issues that are involved. Other reasons for the involvement of competent counsel include: underidentification of mental disability cases; the increased complexity of mental disability law; and a change in the social climate to an environment that is more hostile toward mental patients and less protective of their rights. 121 references