Risa Goluboff (UVA--Law and History) has published "Lawyers, Law and the New Civil Rights History" in 126 Harvard Law Review 2312 (June 2013). The piece is a review of Representing the Race: The Creation of the Civil Rights Lawyer by Ken Mack (Harvard Law). Goluboff's review takes the form of a very useful historiographic essay. Mack replies with "Civil Rights History Old and New."
Update: I just want to second Tomiko on the importance of this exchange. It strikes me as the likely point of departure for the legal historiography of the civil rights movement for the foreseeable future. Further, analogous issues arise in the histories of other fields of law. DRE