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On the occasion of the publication of his book La parole et l’action (Fayard, 2017), Henri Leclerc, lawyer and member of the Paris Bar and former President of the French Human Rights League, looks back in this interview at some of the highlights of his career: the founding years spent working with his master Albert Naud, the temptation to enter politics, the choice of the collective defence and the role played by friendship and fraternity in his professional practice. For him, a lawyer must service “whoever is there” and the meaning of a defence is illuminated by a horizon of humanity shared by the accused and the victim.