page_title: Pierre Laval
section_title: Career as a lawyer
hierarchical_section_title: Pierre Laval / Career as a lawyer
caption_attribution_description: English: French politician Pierre Laval (1883-1945) as lawyer in 1913.
context_page_description: Pierre Jean Marie Laval was a French politician. During the time of the Third Republic, he served as Prime Minister of France from 27 January 1931 to 20 February 1932, and a second time from 7 June 1935 to 24 January 1936.
  A socialist early in his life, Laval became a lawyer in 1909 and was famous for his defense of strikers, trade unionists and leftists against government prosecution. In 1914, he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies as a member of the Socialist Party, and remained committed to his pacifist convictions during the First World War. Following his defeat in the 1919 election, Laval left the Socialist Party and became mayor of Aubervilliers. In 1924 he returned to the Chamber as an independent, and was elected to the Senate three years later. He also held a series of governmental positions, including Minister of Public Works, Ministry of Justice and Minister of Labour. In 1931, Laval became Prime Minister of France, but his government fell only a year later.
  Laval joined the right-wing government of Gaston Doumergue in 1934, serving as Minister of the Colonies and then Foreign Minister. In 1935, he again became Prime Minister.
context_section_description: Abandoning natural science studies, Laval eventually turned to law and became in 1909 a "lawyer of the poor people", closed to syndicalists of the CGT. The years before the First World War were characterised by labour unrest, and Laval defended strikers, trade unionists, and left-wing agitators against government attempts to prosecute them. At a trade union conference, Laval said:
  I am a comrade among comrades, a worker among workers. I am not one of those lawyers who are mindful of their bourgeois origin even when attempting to deny it. I am not one of those high-brow attorneys who engage in academic controversies and pose as intellectuals. I am proud to be what I am. A lawyer in the service of manual laborers who are my comrades, a worker like them, I am their brother. Comrades, I am a manual lawyer.
  The first case that led him to fame was the acquittal of Gustave Manhès, a revolutionary trade unionist charged with possession of explosives and anarchist manuals. Laval married Jeanne Claussat in 1909, the daughter of Socialist politician Dr Joseph Claussat. Their only child, a daughter named Josée, was born in 1911. Josée married René de Chambrun, whose uncle, Nicholas Longworth III, married Alice Roosevelt, daughter of United States President Theodore Roosevelt. Although Laval's wife came from a political family, she never participated in politics. Laval was generally considered to be devoted to his family.
  In 1911, he ran for parliament in the Neuilly-Boulogne electoral district, and caused the victory of Conservative candidate Édouard Nortier by continuing to stand in the second round face to Radical candidate Alexandre Percin.
caption: Pierre Laval in 1913.
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